June 23rd, 2009 | 
Author: The zoot suit has a vague origin and complex history. In fact, the exact origin of zoot suit will never come to light. The zoot suit played a major role in the urban music and dance scene during 1930s. It served as a symbol of minority social resistance, urban youth and working class pride.
A Zoot suit is a suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged trousers and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. The suit was always worn with a long keychain that looped almost to the ankle. It was the rebellious fashion of young men during 1930s and 1940s. The oversized suit was an extravagant personal style and a declaration of freedom and auto-determination. Many people still consider it as a “rebellious garment of the era”. The zoot suit is described as a “killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic’s cell.”
Harold C. Fox, the Chicago clothier and big-band trumpeter created and named the zoot suit. The zoot suit crated by Fox had reet pleat, reave sleeve, ripe stripe, stuff cuff and drape shape, and it was the stage rage during the boogie-woogie rhyme time of the early 1940′s. The credit also goes to Louis Lettes who as a tailor in Beale Street and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus who was a Detroit retailer.
This style of clothing is popularized by African Americans, Mexican Americans, Filipino Americans, Italian Americans and Hispanics, during the late 1930s and 1940s. The Zoot Suit first gained popularity in Harlem jazz culture in the late 1930s where they were initially called “drapes”. The suit became very popular among young Mexican Americans, especially among those in Los Angeles who styled themselves as “pachucos”. It was popular in the Latino community.
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