Popular colthing worn in the Swing era of the 20's - 40's where Jazz was the dominant style of music. Typically worn by jazz cats.
Jacket characterized by broad shoulders, large lapels, and longer than a normal suit jacket.
Pants characterized by high waist, baggy thighs, and close cuffs.
Jacket characterized by broad shoulders, large lapels, and longer than a normal suit jacket.
Pants characterized by high waist, baggy thighs, and close cuffs.
by Agamemnon August 4, 2004
by Hugh G Rection October 31, 2003
by berserker October 21, 2003
Style of suit characterized by a nearly knee-length coat with wide shoulders accompanied by baggy, high-waisted, pleated trousers tapered towards the ankles (drapes), a low crowned, wide-brimmed hat, pointed-toe shoes and an extra long keychain. Emerging in the late 1930's within black youth jazz culture (hepcats), the zoot suit was a wild exaggeration of the typical men's suit and accessories of the era and reputed to have been originally inspired by a custom order based on the civil war period costume worn by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in "Gone With the Wind". The name "zoot" suit likely has roots relating to a combination of the mainstream culture image of the reefer smoking hepcat and hepcat slang. It is believed that the style was quickly popularized among the Harlem jazz scene and spread westward where it became adopted as the hallmark of the pachuco. As world war II-era materials restrictions were imposed articles of clothing utilizing excessive fabric were demonized as "unpatriotic" and a mark of rebellion against the status quo, subservience and anything square. Acts of hooliganism among some members of the pachuco crowd in war-era Los Angeles gave ample reason for drunken servicemen to seek out and bash on Mexican youths, leading to the "zoot suit riots". Today the zoot suit remains as an outlandish reminder of what may be the original fashion symbol of minority youth-culture rebellion.
As soon as we get our shore leave we're headed downtown to beat the hell out of some of those zoot suit-wearing, draft-dodging pachucos.
by Dan O. December 7, 2005
a man's suit characterized by a long jacket with broad, padded shoulders and high waisted pants(they were very popular with urban black people and Los Angeles Chicanos in the 1920s 30s and 40s)
Where did he get that zoot suit?
by The Return of Light Joker December 9, 2007
A suit worn by Pachuco boys when they stop hanging out on street corners and beating each other up, and go to a dance.
by Bumkicker Slade May 11, 2005
by T-dogg1987 November 21, 2006