Feb. 03--For five years, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been working on an exhibition about the history of men's fashion from the 18th century to the present. And for five years, its curators have been desperately trying to acquire one key piece: an authentic 1940s zoot suit. The flared, broad-shouldered suits popularized by black and Mexican American youth during the World War II era were cemented into contemporary popular culture by Luis Valdez's 1979 play "Zoot Suit."
They were also, sadly, at the center of L.A.'s Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, a series of confrontations between white sailors and Mexican youth that resulted in roving bands of sailors beating up zoot suiters and stripping them of their garments.
Well, LACMA has finally found one of these historic pieces: A museum-grade, real-deal zoot suit from 1940-42 is now part of the permanent collection. This extravagant ensemble will make its debut in the April exhibition "Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015."
In the meantime, the museum's "Unframed" blog has a nice piece from costume and textiles curator Sharon Takeda and curatorial assistant Clarissa M. Esguerra on how LACMA came to acquire the suit. It involved an auction and some high-stakes phone bidding. And instead of coming from California, this zoot suit came from New Jersey.
"When the auction began on November 2," Takeda writes, "the opening bid of $500 skyrocketed in less than a minute to bids of five figures. The representative on the other end of the phone line could barely keep up with the pace of bidding. Finally, she said, 'Yes, it's yours!' Our hard-fought winning bid for the zoot suit set a new auction record for twentieth-century menswear."
"Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015" goes on view on April 10 at LACMA. 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, lacma.org.
Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
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