For its wearers — most frequently, Black and brown men — the zoot suit also represented “a freedom over the body,” says Jillian Hernandez, author of “Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and ...

"Service men started beating up on African Americans and Hispanics," Augusta says, noting the famous zoot suit riots of 1943 ... line driving this particular sale, Ornstein says.

In L.A., they were particularly popular among Mexican American, Filipino and Black young men. Burton’s Smart Clothes in downtown L.A. was one of the stores that sold customized zoot suits.

You would think that the Zoot Suit ... the original suits might have been recycled during the war years—or else they just didn't survive the extreme jitterbugging of the young men who originally ...

By the ’40s, the suits were worn by minority men in working-class neighborhoods throughout the country. Though the zoot suit would be donned by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong ...

80 years ago, young men of color were attacked for their “unpatriotic” fashion choices, leading to the Zoot Suit Riots. The repercussions can still be felt today. The zoot suit, with its ...

Tensions came to a head after a fight between a number of U.S. sailors and young Mexican-American men in zoot suits. Police racially profiled individuals wearing the suits, unjustifiably beating ...

Those who track the winds of men`s fashion may have read that wide-shouldered, double-breasted suits are making a comeback. The style, fashion mavens say, is reminiscent of the old zoot suits.