Zoot suit Zoot suit A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit) is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, ged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing became especially popular among the Latino, African American, Italian American, and Filipino American communities during the 1940s. Some observers claim that the "Edwardian-look" suits with velvet lapels worn by Teddy Boys in Britain are a derivative of the zoot suit. Zoot suits were first associated with African Americans in urban communities such as Harlem, Chicago, and Detroit, but were made popular by jazz musicians in the
Trousers as women's clothing in a national magazine. However, First Ladies had been seen earlier wearing pants, including Lou Hoover (photographed privately wearing riding pants at the presidential retreat Camp Rapidan) and Jackie Kennedy (photographed wearing pants and a sweater on Cape Cod in 1960 and wearing palazzo pants in Italy in 1962). In 1972, the Education Amendments of 1972 passed in the United States, which, as part of the Title IX non-discrimination provisions, declared that dresses could not be required of girls. Dress codes thus changed in public schools across the United States. In the 1970s, trousers became quite fashionable for women. Jane