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A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit [1]) is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. It is most notable for its use as a cultural symbol among the Hepcat and Pachuco subcultures.
The zoot suit typically included bright-colored fabric, long suit coats that often reached the knees, wide shoulders, and gathered or tapered pants. The arm and ankle areas were often much tighter than the rest of the fabric, giving the whole look a triangular shape.
The entry of the United States into World War II was heralded by new legislation making zoot suits illegal due to the extra cloth required. In June 1943, white American servicemen stationed in Los Angeles rampaged through Mexican American neighborhoods, attacking young people wearing the suits and often stripping them, in what has become known ...
The Los Angeles City Council formally apologized for its role in the racist and brutal attacks on young Latino, Filipino and Black Angelenos.
The zoot suit was the most salient identifying feature of "pachuquismo", a Mexican American youth subculture. This subculture emerged during a time of increased racism and the fight for Mexican American rights and equality within American society. Both men and women wore the fingertip coats, but for women it became more than just a style.
What became known as the “McIntosh Suit” was a regional term in southern California for a suit that was one’s personal best. [4] The most popular MacIntosh suits featured gray colors with blue pinstripes constructed of gabardine material and wool material for winter suits. [4] Wearers of the zoot suits had different reasons for wearing them.
1943 – Zoot Suit Riots, July 3, Los Angeles, California (anti-Hispanic and anti-zoot suit) 1943 – Detroit race riot of 1943, June 20–21, Detroit, Michigan; 1943 – Harlem riot of 1943, August 1–3, New York City, New York (race riot) 1946 – Columbia race riot of 1946, February 25–26, Columbia, Tennessee
'Zoot Suit' is by far the most influential play by a Chicano writer, and the only one to reach Broadway. It changed Los Angeles' historical memory and the American theater forever