Lemme see that drape esse - authentic zoot suit pics

[Widebrim]

The hter thing that must be realized is that while some tailors actually made and sold zoot suits, especially on the east coast, most Latino "zoot suiters" were wearing big pants pegged at the bottom, and dad's old suit jacket, narrowed in the waist.

From the looks of it, most of these jackets are not tailored long jackets. Not on the latinos anyway. And it stands to reason. Most were quite poor and even a used jacket was likely a sizable investment.

True, there was a difference between East Coast and West Coast, as well as between ethnic groups. In the West (predominately L.A.), most Zooters were Mexican-American or Black, and the Zoot Suit was considered as a sign of rebellion (Phil Harris being the Anglo exception, at least his character on the Jack Benny Program!). In the East, the Zoot Suit was worn by even European-Americans, and really didn't carry such rebellious connotations. (Heck, down South, even Little Abner wore one for a few installments!) I've got a Recordio Message disc from WWII, and the sleeve features a marine in a foxhole, and above him is a thought bubble, showing him back home in the city with his girlfriend. He is wearing a very long, broad-shouldered, almost polka-dot coat with a super-cinched waist, and a bowtie (topped off, of course, with a large brimmed hat and feather). No watch chain, though...

 

[Widebrim]

Is the zoot suit in any way related to the later Bold Look? Some of these zoot jackets look like the Bold Look, only longer.

Yes, it has been said that the Zoot Suit influenced the creation of the Bold Look, which didn't just pop up in '48 (with the coining of the phrase), but which had its roots going back to at least 1944.

 

[Viola]

The mainstream fashion houses running with an urban, "edgy" trend well after the original gang kids tired of it? Faster than Vogue can say "bling!"

 

[Maguire]

Wow great thread. I've been looking for pictures like these, i find the whole style to look so absurd today, especially the two fellows with the striped, light colored pants. It amazes me that at some point not too long ago they were not seen that way, or no one would like twice in the street at them, the way perhaps today oversized basketball jersey's and straightbill baseball caps with the tag on them are. even the styles that are associated with rebellion or outlandishness back in the golden age seemed to have a real flair and neatness to them!

 

[Widebrim]

Tienes razon, Maguire. To tell the truth, I'd rather see oversized zoot suits than oversized basketball jerseys and shorts; let the athletes wear the athletic gear, not some homeboy from Boyle Heights who drives an Escalade he can't afford.

 

[Edward]

See girls got in on the action to!

Well, hello. I love this photo. It reminds me of the shot of her London equivalent, albeit a few years later:

How to make a drape look not cool!

...aka the reason Edward has shied away from a zoot suit for so long... lol. I love the look (though with a more regular, wide-brimmed 40s style fedora rather than the more Mexican-Western style hats they were (stereo)typically worn with). Just can't imagine me pulling it off, in total... especially not as a middle-aged, bald, white guy in the early 21st century..... Seems somehow I'd be misappropriating someone else's cultural gig, and end up looking like those wannbe-rebel squares above!

I'm sure I'm too fat for them now, but a few years ago, when I dressed as the Joker for a costume event, I wore a pair of trews made up by a friend, using a zoot suit pattern:

Photos didn't turn out the best, for some reason, but the trousers are rasonably clear here.... I'm tempted to have some more run up on that pattern as they had a really nice drape on, and didn't look ridiculously wide. The zoot, much like the Teddy Boy, Oxford bags, and many other looks, has suffered much at the hands of populat stereotype, to the point where it conjures up images of some grotesque cartoon far removed from what was typically worn in reality. Anyhoo.... I wish I still have the image from the cover of that pattern, as it bore a very clear warning to many of us who might consider appropriating that style for our own: one of the two gentlement in the photograph emblazoned thereon, in full bright red zoot suit, hat with a six inch brim, and massive peacock feather was the absolute, spitting image of Tom Cruise. This did indeed look every bit as wrong as it sounds it might.

I love these trousers! To my eye, going with the trousers alone is a great way to appropriate something of the look without it getting too much...

The nose art on a B-24E:

Jinkies, how times have changed (and for the better, of course)!

This guy's suit isn't exactly a drape, but it definitely has a zootish flavor:

Image saved for future reference! This is much more along the lines of something I could imagine wearing.... any idea when this was taken?

Look at the pattern on the jacket! I wonder what colors it is?

Isn't it a shame that we don't have more colour photos from the era? I'd love to know if my instinctive assumption that the zoot suits really worn on the streets were typically regular suiting colours and patterns rather than canary yellow or bright red the way they are represented in popculture today (think: the reality of 50s Teddy Boy styles as compared to cheap, 1970s imitation there of - especially that Showaddywaddy rubbish) is actually true.

This jacket, though is clearly something flash.... I can imagine it in the Burberry house-check colours!

The mainstream fashion houses running with an urban, "edgy" trend well after the original gang kids tired of it? Faster than Vogue can say "bling!"

Ho, yes. How we laughed when the fashion world claimed to have discovered and/or invented grung in 1993/ early 1994. I was right behind Kurt Cobain when he started wearing that "Grunge is Dead" T shirt. Same thing when the Daily Mirror "discovered" punk in 1977 and set out its little articles on "how to dress punk".... Soon as the fashion industry gets hold of any cult look and duplicates it on a mainstream fashion scale, it's already over before the stuff hits the shops. Still, a lot of great cult things somehow survive - the Ted ovement, case in point. (Though I should hope the nastier side - racism et al - is gone by now).

 

[resortes805]

Here's one of the posters. Check out the vertical side pockets!

 

[Guttersnipe]

Oh my God! There is so much going on with that poster! "Easy credit terms" - "Slightly on the conservative lines" - wow!

Here's one of the posters. Check out the vertical side pockets!

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Not exactly a picture.....

but...

Alice McGrath, a lifelong activist who first gained fame as a champion of the wrongly convicted young Mexican Americans in the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon trial, has died. She was 92.


http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-alice-mcgrath29-2009nov29,0,3888600.story

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.


Great 1940 zoot pants (or maybe not ... they have wide bottoms!) to the left of this pic.


(And notice the zippered horizontal pocket openings on the pants to the right.)

.

 

[resortes805]

but...

Alice McGrath, a lifelong activist who first gained fame as a champion of the wrongly convicted young Mexican Americans in the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon trial, has died. She was 92.


http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-alice-mcgrath29-2009nov29,0,3888600.story

I met Alice about 8 years ago. She lived in Ventura, and so I had a chance to see her several times around town for social justice events and such. A great woman and very different from the way she was portrayed by Tyne Daly in the film.

 

[resortes805]

.


Great 1940 zoot pants (or maybe not ... they have wide bottoms!) to the left of this pic.


(And notice the zippered horizontal pocket openings on the pants to the right.)

.

From what's been passed down to me is that the original pachucos coming from El Paso to LA in the 1930s used to wear these wide bottomed trousers. From what I've been told, the kids in the 40's started wearing the tight bottomed trousers to be different from those guys!

 

[thunderw21]

To my eye this '40s flannel suit has some zoot influence to it, though not as extreme as the zoots. The trousers are full cut throughout until they get to the knee, where they taper slightly toward the cuffs.

It's vertically designed, long looking:

Add a longer skirt to the jacket and you'd have a zoot style suit.

Reminds me of:

 

[YETI]

Look at that bow tie!

Look at those extra thick soles! My barber, a Korean War vet in the Marines, was a zooter. He told me that pachucos would have triple soles put on their shoes for protection. And I don't mean for their feet.

 

[YETI]

This guy's suit isn't exactly a drape, but it definitely has a zootish flavor:

I noticed the high back vent on the suit jacket. I know in the 40s that was more a European thing. Then again, I remember buying suits as teen in the mid 80s and the European cut was no vent. [huh]

 

[Tiller]

Not my look, but I give major points to the guys and gals who can pull the look off. :eusa_clap As for me I think it would make me look shorter then I am (I'm 5'10").

 

[Widebrim]

Here's one of the posters. Check out the vertical side pockets!

That is incredible! And $22.50 for the suit? That would be about $325 now!

 

[LuckyKat]

I finally found one...pictures to follow....

(I'm still bummed I missed Marc's on ebay a couple of months ago...I just forgot to up my bid)

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

One that's fits? I am curious to see a zoot suit when worn.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]