ZOOT go well with (n.): the final word in outfits. the single completely and really American civilian suit.
—Cab Calloway, The Hepster's Dictionary, 1944

Before the style statements of hippies, punks, or hip-hop, there has been the zoot swimsuit, a awesome city glance of the area warfare II period that captivated the mind's eye. Created by way of terrible African American males and vague tailors, the "drape form" was once embraced by way of Mexican American pachucos, working-class adolescence, entertainers, and swing dancers, but condemned through the U.S. govt as wasteful and unpatriotic in a time of struggle. the style turned infamous whilst it looked as if it would set off violence and ailment in la in 1943—events ceaselessly referred to as the "zoot go well with riot." In its wake, social scientists, psychiatrists, newshounds, and politicians all attempted to provide an explanation for the riddle of the zoot swimsuit, remodeling it right into a multifaceted image: to a couple, an indication of social deviance and mental disturbance, to others, a gesture of resistance opposed to racial prejudice and discrimination. As controversy swirled at domestic, younger males in different places—French zazous, South African tsotsi, Trinidadian saga boys, and Russian stiliagi—made the yank zoot swimsuit their own.

In Zoot Suit, historian Kathy Peiss explores this severe style and its mysterious profession in the course of global struggle II and after, because it unfold from Harlem around the usa and all over the world. She lines the unfolding background of this sort and its value to the early life who followed it as their uniform, and whilst considers the way in which public figures, specialists, political activists, and historians have interpreted it. This outré type used to be a turning element within the manner we comprehend the that means of garments as an expression of social stipulations and tool family. Zoot swimsuit deals a brand new standpoint on early life tradition and the politics of favor, tracing the seam among style and social action.