Zoot Suit Designer Dies At Age Of 86

Harold C. Fox, whose stylized zoot suit was the uniform of trendsetters of the 1930s and ‘40s, is dead at 86.

Fox’s wide-shouldered, narrow-cuffed zoot suit - with high-waisted trousers and a long, draped jacket - was the favored look of “hep cats,” devotees of swing and boogie-woogie music.

Fox, who died Sunday of cancer, was a designer and trumpeter who played occasionally for stars like Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday.

“Since he thought (the zoot suit) was ‘the end of all ends’ or ‘the coolest,’ and Z was the end of the alphabet, he came up with ‘zoot,”’ said Fox’s daughter, Audrey Gregory.