Have you ever wondered why gang members wear the ridiculous costumes that they do? Why do they wear their pants sagging below their butts exposing their underwear? There's actually a company that stitches boxer-type underwear into the baggy pants to achieve the baggy pants clown look. POLICE gang expert Richard Valdemar explains the information to be learned from gangster clothing. Valdemar provided the images.
Interpreting Gangster Clothing
State prison-made shoes, red and blue railroad bandannas, blue jean jackets, and blue Navy surplus wool watch caps were popular prison issue items of clothing. These members of the Aryan Brotherhood are shown in the 1980s.
In this prison art work from the 1990s, Cholo gang members pose wearing baggy pants, shorts and jackets. The member second from the left wears a wool watch cap that was a popular item of prison clothing in the 1970s and 1980s.
Members of El Hoyo (the Hole) Maravilla gang are shown in the 1970s. At the time, surplus Navy bell-bottom dungarees became known as "blues" or "county jeans."
Military cloth belts, wool Pendleton shirts, and brown canvas "camp jackets" were worn back in the barrio or ghetto as items of pride. This counterculture self identification with a lifestyle behind bars just about guaranteed a return to this environment. These members were affiliated with the Lopez Maravilla gang in the 1990s.
In the 1970s, Black gangsters wore three-piece suits, three-quarter length trench coats, brimmed hats and wide collars. They dressed "a cut above" the rest.
The 1981 movie "Zoot Suit" starring Edward James Olmos is the film version of Luis Valdez's critically acclaimed play, based on the Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the zoot-suit riots of 1940s Los Angeles. In the story, Henry Reyna is the leader of a group of Mexican-Americans being sent to San Quentin without substantial evidence for the death of a man at Sleepy Lagoon.
In the 1990s, many gangs went "low profile," switching to sportswear such as football jerseys and tennis shoes to display their gang affiliation. Only those "in the know" about the hidden meaning of logos and colors were supposed to recognize them.