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Biography
Cleanup|date=February 2009Refimprove|date=February 2009: For other uses see Zoot suit (disambiguation) .
A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit ) is a Suit (clothing)|suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, Wiktionary:pegged pants|peg ged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African-Americans during the late 1930s and the 1940s. It started during the Jazz Age in Harlem and slowly spread throughout other ethnic-neighborhoods across America.Walker, John. (1992) http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Zoot-suits-1992 "Zoot suits". Glossary of Art, Architecture & Design since 1945 , 3rd. ed. Retrieved 19 January 2012.Malcolm X was known to have loved zoot suits in his early days as Detroit Red . http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? f=/c/a/2007/04/29/LVGUJPE1AP1.DTL "Zooting up: Brighten prom night with flash, dash—and panache" http://www.civilization.ca/academ/articles/durf1_1e.html "The Montreal and Verdun Zoot-Suit disturbances of June 1944" http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-2000/Zoot%20Suit%20review.htm "Zoot suit revived at the Goodman Theatre" In Britain the bright-coloured suits with velvet lapels worn by Teddy Boy s bore a slight resemblance to zoot suits in the length of the jacket.
Characteristics
A zoot suit has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed Wiktionary:pegged pants|peg ged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Often zoot suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather and pointy, France|French -style shoes. 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".cite book | last = Lennard | first = John | authorlink = John Lennard | title = Walter Mosley: "Devil in a Blue Dress" | url = http://books.google.com/books? id=uPAtDNqe5XwC& pg=PA45& dq=%22reet+pleats+and+shoulders+padded+like+a+lunatic%27s+cell%22#PPA46,M1 | format = e-book | accessdate = 2009-04-22 | year = 2007 | publisher = Humanities-Ebooks | isbn = 978-1-84760-042-4 | page = 45
Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket. Zoot suit wearers' dates often wore flared skirts and long coats.r|life1942092144 The amount of material and tailoring required made them luxury items, so much so that the U.S. War Production Board said that they wasted materials that should be devoted to the World War II war effort.cite book |last=Rottman |first=Gordon L. |title=FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II |publisher=Botley |location=Oxford |year=2007 |page=117 |isbn=9781846031762 When Life published photographs of zoot suiters in 1942, the magazine joked that they were "solid arguments for Conscription in the United States|lowering the Army draft age to include 18 year olds ."cite news | url= http://books.google.com/books? id=oE4EAAAAMBAJ& lpg=PA31& pg=PA44#v=onepage& q& f=true | title=Zoot suits | work=Life | date=1942-09-21 | accessdate=November 20, 2011 | pages=44 This extravagance, which many considered unpatriotic in wartime, was a factor in the Zoot Suit Riots . Wearing the oversized suit was a declaration of freedom and self-determination, even rebelliousness. cite encyclopedia| last = Osgerby | first = Bill | authorlink = | editor = Patrick L. Jamieson & Daniel Romer, eds | encyclopedia = The Changing Portrayal of Adolescents in the Media Since 1950 | title = Understanding the 'Jackpot Market': Media, Marketing, and the Rise of the American Teenager | year = 2008 | publisher = Oxford University Press US | location = New York | pages = 31–32 | isbn=0-19-534295-X
History
According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the word zoot probably comes from a reduplication of suit . The creation and naming of the zoot suit have been variously attributed to Harold C. Fox, a Chicago clothier and big-band trumpet er;cite news |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=9E01E0DF143FF932A3575BC0A960958260 |title= Harold Fox, Who Took Credit For the Zoot Suit, Dies at 86 |publisher= New York Times |date=August 1, 1996 |accessdate=2008-01-08 Louis Lettes, a Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis tailor; http://books.google.com/books? id=ub99o7hy08QC Christiane Bird, ''Da Capo Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the U.S. (2001) ISBN 0306810344 and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a Detroit retailer. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4298/is_199201/ai_n14948945 "Nathan Elkus, 89, Detroit retailer" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=9401E7DF133FF937A3575BC0A960958260 "Zoot Suit Required Cutting and Cajoling"
Zoot suits first gained popularity in Harlem jazz culture in the late 1930s, where they were initially called drapes . http://just-the-swing.com/doc/liv/jive.htm Jive The zoot suit became very popular among young Mexican American s, especially pachuco s in Los Angeles . Anti-Mexican youth riots in Los Angeles during World War II are known as the Zoot Suit Riots .
See also
Portal|Latino and Hispanic American
The Zoot Cat (animated Tom and Jerry cartoon)
38th street gang
Zazou
People
Norris_J._Nelson#Controversies|Norris J. Nelson, Los Angeles City Council member, proposed outlawing zoot suits
References
reflist|35em
External links
http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/whole_cloth/u7sf/u7materials/cosgrove.html The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare, a well-referenced article by Stuart Cosgrove on the origin and history of the zoot suit and zoot suit riots.
http://www.just-the-swing.com/his/zoot-suit-riots The Zoot Suit Riots. Article about the zoot suit riots of 1943.
Difference between fedoras and http://www.withaswing.com/hats/ zoot hats
cite web |publisher= Victoria and Albert Museum
|url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/periods_styles/hiddenhistories/zootsuits/index.html |title= Powerdressing - Zoot suits |work=History, Periods & Styles |accessdate= 2008-06-11 Chicano and Mexican American topics DEFAULTSORT:Zoot suit Category:1930s fashion Category:1940s fashion Category:Suits (clothing) Category:Mexican-American history
