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A zoot suit (occasionally spelled zuit suit) is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing became popular within the African American, Chicano and Italian American communities during the 1940s. The zoot suit was also popular abroad in places such as Trinidad where it was used as a social tool against the norms, as well as Great Britian. In Britain the bright-coloured suits with velvet lapels worn by Teddy Boys bore a slight resemblance to zoot suits in the length of the jacket.

A young Malcolm X described the zoot suit as: "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell". Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket. Zoot suit wearers' dates often wore flared skirts and long coats. '''Accoding to Professor and author Harvey R. Neptune, the zoot suit, as an American import served as "glamorous gear" in Trinidad. '''

The amount of material and tailoring required made them luxury items, so much so that the U.S. War Production Board said that they wasted materials that should be devoted to the World War II war effort. When Life published photographs of zoot suiters in 1942, the magazine joked that they were "solid arguments for lowering the Army draft age to include 18 year olds." This extravagance, which many considered unpatriotic in wartime, was a factor in the Zoot Suit Riot. Wearing the oversized suit was a declaration of freedom and self-determination, even rebelliousness. In Trinidad, the Saga Boys used the zoot suit to "challenge that which was prescribed for their race, class, and gender". Abroad and in the United States, the zoot suit conveyed the idea of a "style warfare" that opposed the standards of society.