Tuxedo

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This prom season, teenagers must have their zoot suits.

Problem is, L.A.-area tuxedo shops don’t have nearly enough.

Zoot suits are relics from the early 1940s, when Latino men known as “pachucos” favored long coats, suspenders, wide pants and pocket-watch chains.

Never mind that these outfits were big around the time when the grandparents of the current crop of teens were going to high school proms more than 50 years ago.

“It’s crazy over here. I have five lines (ringing) right now, and about 100 people coming in to pick up rentals today,” said Ray Estrella, owner of El Pachuco Zoot Suit in Fullerton one of the few local outlets that specializes in the vintage items.

The store carries only zoot suits and the essential accessories that go with them (such as incredibly long pocket chains that spill out sometimes well below the knee, suspenders, hats and even crucifixes).

El Pachuco charges $500 and up for a jacket and pants, or $85 to $95 for rentals, and fills special orders for merchants as far away as New York. Sales are up 30 percent compared to last year, said Estrella.

Many merchants are scrambling to get zoot suits in stock during prom season, which runs from April through June, while others are trying to persuade young customers to stick with the traditional tuxedo.

“I tell them, ‘Do you really want to go in a zoot suit and be underdressed?’ ” said Dmitry Glukhovskiy, manager at Gary’s Tux Shop in Van Nuys. “But what can you do, we can’t make 15 customers all change their minds.”

At Gingiss, a tuxedo retailer in West Los Angeles, saleswoman Dolly Fernandez reports multiple requests for the 1940s relic. “I had five kids ask me for zoot suits,” she said. “We try to convince them to wear a tuxedo.”

Still, when a prom-going teen has his mind set on what to wear, there’s no changing it.

Earlier this week, Gary’s Tux managers called a meeting to discuss whether to stock up on zoot suits or just ride out the trend. They chose the latter. “It’s just a waste of money for us,” Glukhovskiy said.

For retailers that carry pachuco garb, like the Tuxedo Center in Hollywood, the high demand means the store can charge higher prices as much as three times more than a tuxedo would cost.

“They’re more expensive because of the high demand,” said salesman Richard Ramirez. Tuxedo Center charges $150 for a zoot suit rental, and because the store doesn’t keep them in stock, customers have to put down $45 as a deposit on an order.

Fueling the trend are Latino teens who prefer the oversized baggy look, as well as a mainstream fascination with the swinging Rat Pack era.

Vintage clothier Wasteland in Los Angeles saw its small inventory of zoot suits dwindle to zero a few months ago, and owners haven’t been able to get their hands on any since.

“They’re hard to find. The ones we had in here started at $600,” said Steve Kronzer, a salesman at Wasteland. “Kids who wear baggy clothes like that gangster edge. It’s real popular with the Latinos.”

The suit’s name is derived from Luis Valdez’s landmark Mexican American play, “Zoot Suit,” about the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial of 1942, in which a dozen young Latino men were convicted. The 1978 show was re-released late last year.

Ramirez, at Tuxedo Center, sees the current craze as an ongoing revival of a clothing style that never left.

“The zoot suit has always been around,” explained Ramirez. “It went under cover, and now it’s coming back again.”

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