Zoot suit

A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit) is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. It is most notable for its use as a cultural symbol among the Hepcat and Pachuco subcultures. Originating among African Americans it later became popular with Mexican, Filipino, Italian, and Japanese Americans in the 1940s.

The zoot suit originated in African American comedy shows within the Chitlin' Circuit in the 1920s. Comedians such as Pigmeat Markham, Stepin Fetchit, and many others dressed in rags or in baggy suits for their comedic routines. This style of oversized suits later became a popular trend in the inner-city ghettos. Many tap and Lindy hop dancers wore loose-fitting suits to the clubs and ballrooms. These suits made it much easier to navigate through the dance floor while dancing. Jazz and Jump blues singers helped popularize the style in the 1930s and 40s. Cab Calloway called them "totally and truly American". The suits were worn mainly by African American men, including a young Malcolm X. During the rationing of World War II, they were criticized as a wasteful use of cloth, wool being rationed then. In 1942, the War Production Board issued restrictions aimed at stopping the sale of zoot suits.

In the so-called Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, groups of predominately Mexican zoot suiters became victims of repeated racial mob violence. Wearing of the zoot suit was never banned, despite a debate of its prohibition by the Los Angeles City Council in the aftermath of the riots. The zoot suit became an important symbol of cultural pride and defiance of oppression in the Chicano Movement. It experienced a brief resurgence in the swing revival scene in the 1990s. The suit is still worn by Chicano in Mexican subcultures for memorialization events, regular celebrations, and special occasions.

The suits were first associated with African-Americans in communities such as Harlem, Chicago, and Detroit in the 1930s, but were made popular nationwide by Jazz and Jump blues musicians in the 1940s. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "zoot" probably comes from African American Vernacular English and reduplication of suit. The origin of the zoot suit has been disputed throughout the years. Essentially Zoot suits were just oversized or baggy suits, frequently seen with loud colors. Over time, it became tailored to have its own distinctive look. There was no one designer in creating the zoot suits, however many tailors have taken credit for its definitive style. Harold C. Fox, a Chicago clothier and big-band trumpeter; Charles Klein and Vito Bagnato of New York City; Louis Lettes, a Memphis tailor; and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a Detroit retailer. Harold C. Fox has given inspirational credit to African American teenagers for the Zoot Suits. He was quoted in saying "The zoot was not a costume or uniform from the world of entertainment. It came right off the street and out of the ghetto."

"A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)" was a 1942 song written by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Bob O'Brien. Jazz bandleader Cab Calloway frequently wore zoot suits on stage, including some with exaggerated details, such as extremely wide shoulders or overly draped jackets. He wore one in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. In his dictionary, Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: A "Hepster's" Dictionary (1938), he called the zoot suit "the ultimate in clothes. The only totally and truly American civilian suit."

Pachucos and Pachucas were early Chicano youth who participated in a subculture that fashioned zoot suits. The subculture emerged in El Paso, Texas, in the late 1930s and quickly spread to Los Angeles. Pachucos and Pachucas embraced this style that challenged white American norms around race and gender norms The Mexican American zoot suit style was usually black, sharkskin, charcoal gray, dark blue, or brown in color with pinstripes. African American styles usually incorporated brighter colors, thick chalk stripes, floppy hats, and long chains more often than Mexican Americans. Both Pachucos and Hepcats functioned on the margins in American society. Some Pachucos and Hepcats shared solidarity or respect for one another because of this.

In the early 1940s, Pachucos were associated with violence and criminal behavior by the American media, which fueled anti-Mexican sentiment and especially negative views of the zoot suit style in Los Angeles. Pachucas, some of whom also wore the zoot suit, often with some modifications and additional accessories like dark lipstick, were seen as threatening to ideas of family stability and racial uplift, often shunned by their communities and the wider public. The zoot suits became framed as unpatriotic, referring to the excessiveness of cloth during wartime. In 1942, police from across Los Angeles arrested 600 Mexican Americans in the Sleepy Lagoon murder case, which involved the murder of José Gallardo Díaz at a party. Almost all of those arrested as allegedly potential suspects were wearing zoot suits.

Media coverage before and after the case sensationalized and further fanned the flames of hostile anti-Mexican sentiments in the city and abroad. This made some Mexican Americans hesitant to wear the zoot suit, since they did not want to be viewed as criminals simply for their style of dress. Some Pachucos became affiliated with early gangs in Los Angeles and embraced their presumed-to-be criminal status with the zoot suit. Others wore the zoot suit, but refused to refer to themselves as 'zoot suiters.' Mexican Americans who rejected Pachucos and zoot suit attire became known as 'squares' who were said to believe in assimilation and racial uplift theory.