What constitutes a zoot suit?
I’ll try my best to describe a zoot suit, but you really have to see one to appreciate it. The zoot suit looked like a regular man’s business suit on steroids. As a fashion, the suit jacket produced a very striking silhouette by exaggerating the upper male body with wide, padded shoulders. The jacket then tapered dramatically down to a tight waist that flared out again down to the knees. It looked like something between a formal day coat (if you’re familiar with men’s formal wear) and a tightly fitted overcoat. Men on the East Coast wore suits of garish colors like lime green or bright orange, or with very exaggerated patterns like enormous plaids or wide stripes. On the West Coast the colors and patterns were much more subtle, as was the cut. It was a fashion that could be worn by either men or women (and its androgyny was part of the scandal behind it), but it was mostly worn by men. When men wore the zoot suit, they wore it with high-wasted, flowing, pleated pants that flared at the
