A zoot suit is a showy style of clothing, which became most popular during the 1930s and 40s. At that time, it was coupled with certain alternative groups in the United States, like Chicanos and African-Americans. The zoot suit was also related in well-liked culture with most in youth gangs and jazz music. Today, most people think of jazz and swing civilization when they come across term zoot suit.



The zoot suit is normally an extra-large suit, with wide-legged pants collected at the ankles, or tramas, and an extended jacket with big shoulder pads, known as carlango. The surplus amounts of fabric essential to make a zoot suit made the fashion a sign of display. The zoot suit is naturally worn for bureaucrat occasions and often accessorized with a long watch string on the pants, pointed shoes, and a very large felt hat with a feather.

The zoot suit first came in the African American jazz civilization in Harlem, New York, and was soon accepted by alternative communities in other American cities, particularly Los Angeles. The term zoot suit might get from a Mexican-American slang articulation of "suit." Female versions of the zoot suit as well stay alive, though they are hardly ever seen today, some with knee-length skirts in its place of tramas.

Wearing zoot suits became explicitly defiant after the style was officially banned in 1942 by the federal War Production Board that believes the suits extravagant of fabric. In 1943, the alleged Zoot Suit Riots exploded in Los Angeles, where the style was very trendy among Mexican-American youths. Soldiers and sailors on leave started beating up anyone found in a zoot suit in East Los Angeles, the heart of the Latino group of people, though African-Americans and Filipino Americans were also amid the victims. The military men as well destroyed as many zoot suits as they could, tearing them off the wearers and burning the clothes in the streets.

In a sense, the Zoot Suit Riots cemented the fame of the fashion as a symbol of artistic pride and a stand against racism. The first Chicano play on Broadway was Luiz Valdez' melodic, Zoot Suit (1979), made into a film in 1981.