Zoot suit

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A soldier inspecting zoot suits in Washington D.C. in 1942.
A soldier inspecting zoot suits in Washington D.C. in 1942.
Men wearing zoot suits.
Men wearing zoot suits.

Zoot suit (also spelled Zuit Suit) was a style of clothing popularized by Hispanics, African Americans, Filipino Americans and Italian Americans during the 1930s and 1940s.[1][2][3]

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[edit] Creation

Harold C. Fox, the Chicago clothier and big-band trumpeter claimed credit for creating and naming the zoot suit. Its creation has also been attributed to Beale Street tailor, Louis Lettes; and Detroit retailer Nathan (Toddy) Elkus. [4]

[edit] Characteristics

A zoot suit has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged trousers (called tramas) and a long coat (called the carlango) with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Often zoot suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather (called a tapa or tanda) and pointy, French-style shoes (called calcos). A young Malcolm X 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. Many young people wore a more moderate version of the "extra-bagged" pants or styled their hair in the signature "duck tail".

The oversized suit was an extravagant personal style and a declaration of freedom and auto-determination; although many people still consider it a "rebellious garment of the era."[citation needed]

[edit] History

The Zoot Suit first gained popularity in Harlem jazz culture in the late 1930s where they were initially called "drapes". [1]

The word "zoot", according to the Oxford English Dictionary, probably comes from a reduplication of the word 'suit'. It was probably first coined by Mexican American pachucos as part of their slang, "Caló", evolving from the Mexican Spanish pronunciation of the English word "suit" with the "s" taking on the sound of a "z". In any case, the zoot suit became very popular among young Mexican Americans, especially among those in Los Angeles who styled themselves as "pachucos"

Anti-Latino race riots in Los Angeles during World War II are known as the Zoot Suit Riots.

[edit] In popular culture

A 1943 drawing of Li'l Abner wearing a Zoot Suit.
A 1943 drawing of Li'l Abner wearing a Zoot Suit.

Bandleader Cab Calloway wore a zoot suit in one of his 1930s short films.

August Darnell, Frontman for Kid Creole and the Coconuts, wears a zoot suit as part of his trademark style.

Zoot suits were satirized by Al Capp in 1943 in the comic strip Li'l Abner, in which Abner Yokum appeared as "Zoot Suit Yokum", a gullible but near-indestructible man chosen by a clothing manufacturer to serve as role model for white youth through dangerous, staged heroic feats. The story ended with mainstream businessmen also taking to the zoot suit, whereupon it suddenly went out of style. The Li'l Abner character "Evil Eye Fleegle" also wore a zoot suit.

In a Tom & Jerry 1944 short, The Zoot Cat, Tom tries to win the affections of a female cat, but is rejected for being "corny". Sitting on the front porch, he hears an ad on the radio telling Tom that to be a "hep cat" he needs to wear a zoot suit. Tom immediately makes one out of a hammock and re-appears by the female cat, impressing her with his new "hep" clothes. However, when Jerry interferes, the suit gets wet and shrinks so much that the suit winds up fitting Jerry perfectly.

As with other contemporary fads and topics, zoot suits were frequently portrayed or mentioned in Warner Bros. cartoons. One example occurs in The Big Snooze (1946), in which a group of literal "wolves" howl at Elmer Fudd, who has been "disguised" in drag by Bugs Bunny. In another example, Daffy Duck dons a zoot suit in Book Revue (also 1946).

Zoot Suit is the name of a musical play by Luis Valdez, featuring music from Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero, the "father of Chicano music." When it debuted in 1979, Zoot Suit was the first Chicano play on Broadway. In 1981, Luis Valdez also directed a filmed version of the play.

Before they found success in the UK in 1965 as the look and voice of the London mod youth culture, British rock group The Who had tried to break into the record market in 1964 as The High Numbers, with a song called "Zoot Suit". The lyrics, written by their manager and leading mod Peter Meaden, include "I got a zoot suit jacket with side vents five inches long." In mod use, the term zoot suit jacket meant a hip short box jacket with narrow lapels, three buttons and side vents, perhaps in white or ice blue color. In 1973, The Who released their rock opus, Quadrophenia, dedicated to the mods of the 1960s. A song called "Cut My Hair" contains the same lyrics about a zoot suit mentioned above.


  • Jim Carrey wore a bright yellow ostentatious zoot suit when playing the title character in the 1994 film The Mask.
  • The early scenes of Spike Lee's film Malcolm X show the famous African-American activist in his younger days. Calling himself Detroit Red, he and his best friend Shorty (played by Spike Lee) are seen dressed as zoot suit kids.
  • In the comic books and cartoons of Blue Falcon the Zoot Suit Brutes were recurring villains.
  • In UK cannabis culture, the term "zoot" has come to mean a spliff (marijuana cigarette) due to the narrow bottoms and wide shoulder resembling how a spliff is commonly rolled.
  • Dick Tracey wears a Zoot Suit in both the movie and the comics.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Zooting up / Brighten prom night with flash, dash - and panache
  2. ^ Civilization.ca - Scholars - The Montreal and Verdun Zoot-Suit disturbances of June 1944
  3. ^ *http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-2000/Zoot%20Suit%20review.htm
  4. ^ ROBERT MCG. THOMAS JR.. "Harold Fox, Who Took Credit For the Zoot Suit, Dies at 86", New York Times, August 1, 1996. Retrieved on 2008-01-08. "Harold C. Fox, the Chicago clothier and sometime big-band trumpeter who claimed credit for creating and naming the zoot suit with the reet pleat, the reave sleeve, the ripe stripe, the stuff cuff and the drape shape that was the stage rage during the boogie-woogie rhyme time of the early 1940's, died on Sunday at his home in Siesta Key, Florida. He was 86. ... Never mind that the zoot suit has been variously attributed to a Beale Street tailor named Louis Lettes and a Detroit retailer known as Nathan (Toddy) Elkus. Anyone who doubts that a fashion that became widely associated with black and Hispanic swells, World War II drugstore cowboys and Harvest Moon jitterbuggers was actually created by one man, even a trumpet-playing Chicago clothier who once took his own integrated band to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, wouldn't get much of an argument from Mr. Fox." 

[edit] External links