Back in the day of the late 1930s and early 1940s men wore high waisted, pegged trousers, with long coats featuring wide lapels and padded shoulders. The style was called the Zoot suit. Worn for special occasions these luxurious suits were all the rage among Italian Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans and other ethnic groups. At the time the Zoot suit was associated with the jazz culture and worn as a statement of defiance by youths thought to be discriminated against by society.

Harold C. Fox claimed to have made the first zoot suit. Harold was a tailor and bandleader in Chicago who thought the cool style would be a hit among the poor urban teenagers. With the nation at war the U.S. government put a fabric rationing into place banning the zoot suit. Newspapers labeled the Zoot suit wearers unpatriotic, rebellious, calling them hoodlums. In Los Angeles riots broke out among Zoot suiters and servicemen placing a dark cloud within the community.

Today the Zoot suit is a popular rental among high school teenagers going to their proms.