Zoot suit
[7][8] 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.
[12][13][14] The suits were first associated with African-Americans in communities such as Harlem,[15] Chicago, and Detroit in the 1930s,[15] but were made popular nationwide by Jazz and Jump Blues musicians in the 1940s.
Harold C. Fox, a Chicago clothier and big-band trumpeter;[16] Charles Klein and Vito Bagnato of New York City;[17] Louis Lettes, a Memphis tailor;[18] and Nathan (Toddy) Elkus, a Detroit retailer.
[21] Jazz bandleader Cab Calloway frequently wore zoot suits on stage, including some with exaggerated details, such as extremely wide shoulders or overly draped jackets.
[8]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.
[28] 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.
[7] 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.
[8] Some Pachucos became affiliated with early gangs in Los Angeles and embraced their presumed-to-be criminal status with the zoot suit.
[28] For ten days, white U.S. servicemen cruised Mexican American neighborhoods searching for zoot suiters to attack.
"[8] Norris J. Nelson, Los Angeles City Council member, proposed outlawing zoot suits, although this did not occur due to questions about its constitutionality.
[33] This began to reduce stress on the origins of the zoot suit as a Black cultural symbol, which made it more acceptable to white Americans.
[33] Most of the visible tension surrounding the zoot suit prior to the riots was concentrated in the Los Angeles area regarding the spread of anti-Mexican sentiment among whites in the city.
[33] Zoot suits not only played a historical role in the subculture in the United States in the 1940s, but also shaped a new generation of men in Trinidad.
These Trinidadian men who adopted this American fashion became referred to as the "saga boys"; they wore these suits and embraced the glamorous lifestyle that they represented.
"[34] Therefore, although the "saga boys" had the appearance of adapting to the urban American way of life, they were in fact using this clothing and lifestyle as a way to improve their lives in Trinidad, rise above the restrictions that imperialism brought and create through this oppositional dress, a culture of their own.
[12][36][37] Some of this is owed to Luis Valdez's 1979 play Zoot Suit and its subsequent 1981 film, which carried knowledge of the era and interest in the style forward.
[42] Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket.
[44] When Life published photographs of zoot suiters in 1942, the magazine joked that they were "solid arguments for lowering the Army draft age to include 18-year-olds".
