Roots Of The Zoots: Malcolm X and powerdressing.

A Zootie in Harlem setting, circa 1942.
Illustration: Chris Sullivan

 The 1940s maintained a timeless elegance, counteracting the bitter and desolate apprehension surrounding the war. For many African Americans it was a time to exceed their liberation through GI abundance and a sacrificial fight to defend a country they were mercilessly brought into. Out of many subcultures I admire the zooties for their cool cat suits and their hip attire, with high wasted trouser and elaborate shoulder padded jackets. Their message was to bring forth the authentic aesthetics of black culture and racial opportunity through the use of semiotics and self promotional performance of power dressing. This was able through mostly young working class African American, Latino and Pilipino to refract the proposed image of poverty and oppression.

Malcolm X was accustom to theirs trends and once sported the zoot suit back in the 40's, in his autobiography he accentuates on his past of wearing and buying:

'I was measured, and the young salesman picked off a rack a zoot suit that was just wild: sky-blue pants thirty inches in the knee and angle narrowed down to twelve inches at the bottom, and a long coat that pinched my waist and flared out below my knees. As a gift, the salesman said, the store would give me a narrow leather belt with my initial 'L' on it. Then he said I ought to also buy a hat, and I did - blue, with a feather in the four-inch brim. Then the store gave me another present: a long, thick-lined, gold plated chain that swung down lower than my coat hem. I was sold forever on credit. … I took three of those twenty-five cent sepia-toned, while-you wait pictures of myself, posed the way 'hipsters' wearing their zoots would 'cool it' - hat angled, knees drawn close together, feet wide apart, both index fingers jabbed toward the floor. The long coat and swinging chain and the Punjab pants were much more dramatic if you stood that way.'



Malcolm X in Egypt, Cairo (1964)