Common Threads: The Zoot Suit — An Evolution of a Radical Style

The annual gala of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (better known as the Met Gala) this year celebrated the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” focusing on the cultural and historical examination of Black style, mainly through the concept of dandyism.

Black style — as seen through an emphasis on clothes that indicated wealth, distinction, and taste — was both an aesthetic and a strategy employed by African Americans to claim freedom, identity, and power. From enslavement to today, fashion was a tool through which Black people could imagine and embody new social and political possibilities.

As expected, tailoring served as a main concept for the gala, as suits and their interpretations dominated the red carpet. Long seen as the embodiment of refinement and excellence, tailored garments have been an important element in shaping the Black dandy. Suits convey power, respect, and status, but worn on different bodies, they also serve to challenge and reinterpret these ideas.

Uploaded to YouTube by TIME

Black Americans in particular have long understood that clothing and appearance had political implications, not only as individuals but also as a group. But while the politization of the dandy style was often used to challenge hierarchies of race, class, and gender, it could also have violent ramifications as clothes became a tool of resistance.

This came to the forefront during the 1940s, with controversies over the zoot suit — an oversize suit style that included long single-breasted jackets with boxy shoulder pads, wide lapels, and loose high-waisted baggy pants, and which was especially popular among Black and Latino youth. The name of the suit derived from jive talk and bebop slang that was popular in Harlem’s dancing halls during the 1930s, when it was first adopted by Black and Puerto Rican young men.

The baggy pants of the zoot suit were inspired from the short-lived 1920s “Oxford bags” trend. This voluminous pants style originated among British students at Oxford and Cambridge and was associated with youthful rebellion that challenged Victorian social norms after World War I. Unlike the Oxford bags however, which at their extreme were so wide to cover the wearer’s shoes, the zoot suit was tapered at the ankle, creating a more balloony silhouette. This was not just a stylistic choice but a practical one, as the cuffed trousers helped to prevent couples tripping over each other while dancing the Swing or the Jitterbug.

Whereas the Oxford bags enjoyed popular acceptance, as privileged white students and even the Duke of Windsor could afford flouting social norms without much censure, the fact that zoot suits were mainly worn by working-class racial minorities made them a radical style.

Indeed, Black and Brown men adopted the style as an act of rebellion, carving a place for themselves in a society that often ignored their humanity. The suit’s voluminous measurements and flamboyant look conveyed pride and defiance, turning the style into a political statement. By wearing the suit, and engaging in the practice of dressing in stylish clothes, these men challenged dominant stereotypes that saw Black bodies as dirty and unkempt and instead presented a refined appearance that demanded respect.

The young Malcolm Little — who would later be better known as the civil rights activist Malcolm X — adopted the style as an act of rebellion against white society that perceived Black people like him as second-class citizens. In his autobiography Malcolm described his excitement when getting his first zoot suit: “[T]he young salesman picked off a rack a zoot suit that was just wild: sky-blue pants thirty inches in the knee and angle-narrowed down to twelve inches at the bottom, and a long coat that pinched my waist and flared out below the knees.”

When in 1942, wartime fabric rationing forbade the manufacturing and selling of the suit, which required excess cloth to make, wearing zoot suits was seen not only as rebellious but also subversive and even un-American.

In June 1943, the deviant and criminal association of the zoot suit drew even more attention as riots broke out across the country. In Los Angeles in particular, white servicemen targeted civilians — mainly Mexican American, Black, Filipino, and other ethnic minority men — beating them, tearing their clothes with knives, and stripping them of their trousers. The press and the police dubbed the clashes as the “Zoot Suit Riots,” making this style of dress, as historian Kathy Peiss writes, the main catalyst and cause of the violence.

While victims were targeted due to their race, not necessarily their attire, the suit became a political weapon for further discriminating against minorities. The Los Angeles Times labeled the zoot suit as “freak suits,” and the city council passed a regulation to ban the outfit. As the attention focused on the suit, it further gained political meaning, this time as a symbol of resistance and opposition.

Not only in the U.S., but also in occupied France, the zoot suit, worn by middle-class Parisian youth known as “zazous,” served as a symbol of resistance against the Nazi regime. And in South Africa, it became the hallmark of Black youth known as “tsotsis,” who adopted the style into their struggle. By the 1980s, the zoot suit entered popular culture through the film Zoot Suit, based on a Broadway play by Luis Valdez with the same name.

A depiction of men wearing zoot suits in the South African feature film African Jim (Uploaded to YouTube by Villon Films)

From a marker of criminality, the zoot suit became an icon of rebellion and pride, turning fashion not only to a vehicle of self-expression but as a way to claim group identity and cultural respect. As the modern-day interpretations of the zoot suit at the Met Gala can attest, its impact and message continue to resonate. The long career of the zoot suit shows us not only the resilience of Black and Brown people in fashioning their freedom, but also the power of style to change the world.