In the 1940s, a zoot suit was flamboyant rebellion: high-waisted, tapered at the ankles, with a fedora to match and a gold chain in the pocket, it was anything but subtle.

The pachucos wearing them were born in the U.S but from Mexican families, with a hard line to tow. They wanted to be a part of the American culture without giving up their roots. Yet neither culture accepted the idea. Their Mexican families balked, saying they’d forgotten where they came from, but their neighbors didn’t see them as “Americanized.” They didn’t look very hard, frankly, because as it turns out, the beloved Rhett Butler didn’t dress very differently a few years before in Gone with the Wind, a southern classic.

The women especially were edgy, with high coifs and sassy dresses or even feminine versions of the zoot suit. In outfits tailored to emphasize the time’s taboos, they challenged the image of the “good Latina woman” who was meant to stay at home and run the house. These girls did what the men did, and they liked it. It was a group that fought for their place in society, though not always only through fashion. Their reputation was as tough as their clothes classy.

Eventually, the Pachucos passed the torch of cultural rebellion on to the Chicanos, and the cholo style was born, a departure from the pachuco flair. The zoot suits were traded in for khaki pants, white shirts, and shoes polished to a shine. Today, it’s more casual, accessorized with hairnets and Nikes, but back in the day it was proper.

The war had just ended and the Army Commissaries were overstocked with inventory, so they sold the clothes cheap at stores in LA in areas with a strong Mexican-American population. Teenagers who didn’t have a lot of money at the time scooped them up and created a distinct identity out of a patriotic surplus.

There was honor in the style – the khakis had a crease ironed down the front, and a young cholo might even have walked into a classroom carrying his pressed white shirt on his arm so it didn’t get wrinkled. Like their predecessors, cholos took pride in their new identity. Though they struggled with the balance of fitting in and standing out, eventually they found a way to do both.