Marc Fennell
speaker
1,887 appearances
18 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard 5d ago
Marc Fennell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 18 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 5.
Appearances
It's striped, it's oversized, it's baggy, and when you dance, it is like the fabric comes to life.
The suit you're wearing, it's called a Zoot suit.
Designed by and for young people, and it was made to get attention.
And sometimes that wasn't such a good thing.
I'm Marc Fennell, and this is how fashion can reshape a people.
And how it can fracture a city and become a symbol of rebellion during a war.
What began as a youthful fashion statement would eventually become seen as un-American, would lead to violence, death, and a very dark legacy.
But at the time, no one saw it coming.
So this is Monica Miller, and she's a professor of Africana Studies at Columbia University in New York City.
Okay, so let's go back to where this zoot suit began.
The year is 1940.
You're about to meet a young man by the name of Clyde Duncan.
Clyde Duncan is considered like a sort of a pioneer of this design.
And here is what you'd be looking at.
36 inches is around 92 centimetres.
So that's like a metre of fabric around the knees.
But then as you went down to the ankle, it would taper in.
Tapers to 12 inches.
Which is around 30 centimetres.
So that's a third of how wide the leg was.
Showing 921–940 of 1,887 · page 47 of 95
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