Zoot Suit
ズートスーツ / 1930s–1940s / Style / Subculture Style
The earliest street style: suits with wildly exaggerated shoulders and pegged trousers, by which Black and Mexican-American youth asserted their existence in a discriminatory society.
Exaggerated shoulders / Knee-length jackets / Pegged wide trousers / Long watch chains
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Comparing primary sources and exemplary cases · Extracting principles that transfer beyond dress
- Type
- Observe the letters and signs of the era and community referred to
- Composition
- Translate silhouette and proportion into composition
- Material
- Verify the material conditions: cloth, tailoring, the wearer's body
- Caution
- Never consume it as costume. This dress carries the history of racism and the riots.
- Further study
- The Zoot Suit Riots, 1943 / pachuco culture / the clash with wartime fabric rationing