There were Zazous from all classes, races, and both sexes but with apparently similar outlooks. The Zazous were numbered in the hundreds rather than thousands and were generally between 17 and 20. They usually drank fruit juice or beer with grenadine syrup. They began to appear in the vegetarian restaurants and developed a passion for grated carrot salad. The Zazous were fans of checkered patterns, on jacket, skirt or umbrellas. For lack of other materials, feathers and veils, promoted to the dignity of flags, floated through Paris like revolutionary banners. I have no doubt that this zazou style originated in a desire to defy the forces of occupation and the austerity of Vichy. Hats were far too large, skirts far too short, jackets far too long, shoes far too heavy. In his autobiography, Christian Dior wrote of the style:

Their stockings were striped or sometimes net, and they wore shoes with thick wooden soles. They wore jackets with extremely wide shoulders and short, pleated skirts. Blonde was the favourite colour, and they wore bright red lipstick, as well as sunglasses, also favoured by some male Zazous.

įemale Zazous wore their hair in curls falling down to their shoulders, or in braids. Hall described the Zazou look as follows: 'the young men wore dirty drape suits with 'drainpipe' trousers under their sheepskin-lined jackets and brillianted liberally their long hair, the girls favored tight roll-collar sweaters with short flared skirts and wooden platform shoes, sported dark glasses with big lenses, put on heavy make-up and went bare-headed to show their dyed hair, set off by a lock of a different hue'. Many Zazous liked to dress in the style anglais with umbrellas (seen as a symbol of Britishness in France) a popular fashion accessory and their hair done up à la mode d'Oxford (as Simone de Beauvoir called it), had a fondness for speaking to each other in English as it was more 'cool' and loved British and American popular music. They liked thick-soled suede shoes, with white or brightly coloured socks. The shirt collars were high and kept in place by a horizontal pin. Their trousers were narrow, gathered at the waist, and so were their ties, which were cotton or heavy wool. The amount of material used was a direct comment on government decrees on the rationing of clothing material. The male Zazous wore extra large jackets, which hung down to their knees and which were fitted out with many pockets and often several half-belts.

In the Latin Quarter, the Zazous met in the cellar clubs of Dupont-Latin or the Capoulade. The Champs Elysées Zazous were easily recognisable on the terrace of the Pam Pam and took afternoon bike rides in the Bois de Boulogne. The Zazous of the Champs Elysées came from a more middle-class background and were older than the Zazous of the Latin Quarter. The two most important meeting places of the Zazous were the terrace of the Pam Pam cafe on the Champs-Élysées and the Boul’Mich (the Boulevard Saint-Michel near the Sorbonne). The Zazous were to be found throughout France, but were most concentrated in Paris. These young people expressed their resistance and nonconformity through aggressive dance competitions, sometimes against soldiers from the occupying forces. During the German occupation of France, the Vichy regime, which collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, had an ultra-conservative morality and started to use a whole range of laws against a youth that was restless and disenchanted.

Zazu meaning