Zoot Suit

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, if you wanted to simply irritate conventional-minded people, you wore a colorful Zoot Suit and some equally outrageous-looking Stacy Adams Shoes. Back before hippies and beatniks, some people wanted to thumb their nose at society in the cities. Those people wore a zoot suit. You see, wearing one of these outrageous style suits was today's equivalent of dying your hair purple and tattooing your face. Many people found it offensive that someone would wear a suit that looked like zoot suit because of the wide padded shoulders,extra long coat, and overly baggy high-waisted pants.

With the wide brimmed fedora and feather, zoot suits just gave a man a completely different silhouette than wearing a conventional styled suit. Picture the overly wide broad shoulders and the peg leg cuffs and a man almost looked like a railroad spike. They were almost always worn with flashy looking shoes like black and white spectator shoes. It took a man with the type of attitude and renegade disposition that many ladies find attractive. You don't see anyone who is meek and weak wearing a zoot suit.

Putting on a zoot suit just says I don't care what you think and I'll do what I please. Now get out of my way and if I see you look at me for even a moment there is going to be trouble. During World War two it was illegal to manufacture zoot suits because of the shortage of fabric and other materials used for the war effort. Wearing one of these long jacket get-ups would also create trouble between the Mexican Americans or Pachucos and the police because of the disregard for the wartime effort. There were constant clashes that ended up boiling down to race because of these long jacket-style suits. Those days are long gone but there will always be some folks who just want to march to the beat of their drum.