A fad often is defined as “a temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., especially one followed enthusiastically by a group”. One example is M.C Hammer and his titular “Hammer pants” becoming a notable fad in the 80’s. All fads fade away eventually, leaving little in the way of impact. While that may be the case for most, it’s not for a fad in the 60’s known as the zoot suit. Fads are often influenced by positive media which in turn influences the public; however, with zoot suits it was the exact opposite. These suits were popular in particular with minorities, who wore the suits as a form of indirect protesting against racism. Due to their association with minorities the suits became less popular and had their image tarnished by the media, who condemned the suits branding any minority who wore them as “thugs” or “gangsters”. Many white comedians at the time wore them as a way to mock and belittle minorities. The suits were often associated with fictional villians in an …show more content…
Names that gave popularity to these garments were performers such as Cab Calloway who was stated as saying the following: “they are the ultimate in clothes and are the only totally and truly American civilian suit” (“Zoot Suit Riots”). Factors which contributed to the loss of popularity of zoot suits include at its core racial tensions, as the majority of people wearing these suits were Mexican Americans or African Americans . The most famous event associated with these suits was known as the “zoot suit riots”, to sum it up “The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of violent clashes during which mobs of U.S. servicemen, off-duty police officers and civilians brawled with young Latinos and other minorities in Los Angeles” (“ Zoot Suit Riots”). Now couple that with the amount of resources it took to produce one suit during America’s WW2 rationing period and the image media gave the suits and you have a recipe for