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The Call of the Zoot
DENVER (By Ruth La Ferla) May 25, 2004 - Elvis Nuñez, a junior at North High School in Denver, wore a zoot suit to his high school prom last week, a dapper black ensemble punctuated by a crimson shirt that was inspired by a similar version worn by Edward James Olmos in "Zoot Suit," the play, and the 1982 movie. Long a fan of the actor's flashy regalia, Mr. Nuñez wore a zoot suit to his prom last year, too. A Mexican-American, Mr. Nuñez, 18, said in a phone interview that the ensemble, with its wide-shouldered frock coat and voluminous high-waisted pants, gives him stature with his peers and a cock-of-the-walk self-assurance. "It's flamboyant, but it's good flamboyant," he said. Impressed by its swagger, and also, perhaps, by its genesis in a marginalized urban underclass, an increasing number of Mr. Nuñez's classmates — Latino and Anglo alike — have adopted jazzy variations on the zoot suit. "A zoot suit shows power and position," Mr. Nuñez said. "It's stylish and people relate to it." They do indeed. Zoot suits, long an alternative formal wear staple, have lately shown signs of filtering into the mainstream. The style, which originated in the urban black and Chicano communities of the late 1930's, "has long been an option at prom time," said Karen Hurley, a spokeswoman for the International Formalwear Association based in Chicago. Despite its origins as the uniform of Los Angeles street gangs, it has been picked up "simply as a new kind of trendy look, an alternative to the black tuxedo," Ms. Hurley said. Its eye-popping colors and accessories — wide ties, trailing watch chains and rakish fedoras — have given formal wear sales, which have been flat since 9/11, a much-needed shot in the arm. The zoot suit's profile has lately been raised by devotees like Snoop Dogg and David Bowie. "It's still a niche category, but a growing niche," said Craig Peña, an owner of Suavecito in Denver, a leading zoot suit distributor. Suavecito generates about $500,000 a year in rentals of standard-issue black suits as well as variations in scarlet and parrot green, or zebra stripes, Mr. Peña said. "We see it being adopted by the mold-breakers of this community, the ones who step out," he added. That includes white suburban adolescents — the same group that was swift to embrace the exaggerated style of hip-hop clothing. Ray Estrella, whose store, El Pachuco in Fullerton, Calif., outfits prom-bound teenagers in the Los Angeles area, similarly noted that sales have picked up among non-Latinos. "The zoot suit never has been a purely Latino thing," Mr. Estrella said. Historically, "everybody got their own claim to it — Filipinos, black kids, white kids." But, he said, "it's the white kids that are getting more into it right now." Midwestern retailers, too, do a respectable business in knee-length duster coats worn with conventional tuxedo trousers, modified to resemble zoot suits. "We're renting a lot of those to prom kids," said Bryden Carnahan, president of Seno, a formal wear rental house based in Decatur, Ill. "In our area, that's not so much a Latino population. These clothes fit the bill for people who like maybe a little bit of a Western look," he said. Proponents of the style are well aware of its unsavory past, one that harks to an era of racial tensions and gang warfare. But fans like Mr. Nuñez have distanced themselves from that history. "Despite what people think, a zoot suit is not just some gangster thing," Mr. Nuñez said. "It means pride, and especially pride in one's heritage. Sometimes it's kept in the shade. But I like to shine the light on it." |
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