A
zoot suit (occasionally spelled
zuit suit) is a
suitA suit is a set of garments crafted from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in England as country wear...
with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Puerto RicansPuerto Ricans in the mainland Puerto Ricans in the mainland Puerto Ricans in the mainland (or "Puerto Rican Diaspora," "Nuyorican", "stateside or mainland Puerto Ricans" or, Puerto Rican American are Americans of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated to the United States mainland...
,
Italian AmericanAn Italian American is an American of Italian ancestry, and/or may also refer to someone possessing Italian/American dual citizenship. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States.-History:...
s, and Filipino Americans during the late 1930s and 1940s.
A zoot suit has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged trousers (Spanish:
tramas), and a long coat (Spanish:
carlango) with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders.
A
zoot suit (occasionally spelled
zuit suit) is a
suitA suit is a set of garments crafted from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in England as country wear...
with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Puerto RicansPuerto Ricans in the mainland Puerto Ricans in the mainland Puerto Ricans in the mainland (or "Puerto Rican Diaspora," "Nuyorican", "stateside or mainland Puerto Ricans" or, Puerto Rican American are Americans of Puerto Rican origin, including those who migrated to the United States mainland...
,
Italian AmericanAn Italian American is an American of Italian ancestry, and/or may also refer to someone possessing Italian/American dual citizenship. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States.-History:...
s, and Filipino Americans during the late 1930s and 1940s.
Characteristics
A zoot suit has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged trousers (Spanish:
tramas), and a long coat (Spanish:
carlango) with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Often zoot suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather (Spanish:
tapa or
tanda) and pointy,
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
-style shoes (Spanish:
calcos). A young
Malcolm XMalcolm X , also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against...
described the zoot suit as: "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell".
Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket.
Zoot suits were for special occasions, such as a dance or a birthday party. The amount of material and tailoring required made them luxury items, so much so that the U.S.
War Production BoardThe War Production Board was established as a government agency on January 16, 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt.The purpose of the board was to regulate the production and allocation of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States...
said that they wasted materials that should be devoted to the
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
war effort. This extravagance during wartime was a factor in the
Zoot Suit RiotsThe Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, California during World War II, between white sailors and Marines stationed throughout the city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. While Mexican Americans were the primary targets of...
. Wearing the oversized suit was a declaration of freedom and self-determination, even rebelliousness.
History
According to the
Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language...
, the word
zoot probably comes from a
reduplicationReduplication, in linguistics, is a morphological process by which the root or stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated.Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality, intensification, etc., and in lexical derivation to create new words...
of
suit. It was probably first coined by
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. They account over 12.5% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006 forming about 64% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The United States is home to the second largest Mexican...
pachucoPachucos are Mexican American youths who developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothing and spoke their own dialect of Mexican Spanish, called Caló or Pachuco...
s as part of their slang (
CalóCaló is an argot or slang of Mexican Spanish which originated during the first half of the 20th century in the Southwestern United States. It is a product of zoot suit or Pachuco culture.-Origin:...
) from the
Mexican SpanishMexican Spanish is the dialect of the Spanish language, as spoken in Mexico.Spanish was brought to present day Mexico around 500 years ago. As a result of Mexico City's central role in the colonial administration of New Spain, the population of the city included relatively large numbers of...
pronunciation of the English word
suit with the
s sounded as
z.
The creation and naming of the zoot suit have been variously attributed to
Harold C. Fox, a
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
clothier and big-band
trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
er; Louis Lettes,
a
MemphisMemphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4
th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
tailor; and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
retailer.
Zoot suits first gained popularity in
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
culture in the late 1930s, where they were initially called
drapes. The zoot suit became very popular among young
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. They account over 12.5% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006 forming about 64% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The United States is home to the second largest Mexican...
s, especially
pachucoPachucos are Mexican American youths who developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothing and spoke their own dialect of Mexican Spanish, called Caló or Pachuco...
s in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
. Anti-Mexican youth riots in Los Angeles during World War II are known as the
Zoot Suit RiotsThe Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, California during World War II, between white sailors and Marines stationed throughout the city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. While Mexican Americans were the primary targets of...
.
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