Gouster was a form of dress that was adopted by Black high school students and street gang members in the mid and late 1960s in Chicago. The dress consisted of baggy pants and long collar shirts. Some young men wore Kangaroos or what was described as "Old Men Comforts". Others would purchase Borsalino hats and cashmere coats, to create more of a "gangster" look. Gousters had a reputation for being cool, not flashy.

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  • Gouster was a form of dress that was adopted by Black high school students and street gang members in the mid and late 1960s in Chicago. The dress consisted of baggy pants and long collar shirts. Some young men wore Kangaroos or what was described as "Old Men Comforts". Others would purchase Borsalino hats and cashmere coats, to create more of a "gangster" look. Gousters had a reputation for being cool, not flashy. During this period, men would have their clothes tailor-made with pleated pants, simply referred to as "pleats". Later, gousters started to purchase Italian knit shirts to complement their pleated pants. Many high schools were termed "Gouster Schools" due to the large percentage of students that dressed in the fashion. "Gouster Schools" were, in many cases, contrasted with "Ivy League Schools", where a majority of students wore the more "preppy" "Ivy" style, characterized by Brooks Brothers shirts, pants without pleats and saddle shoes or penny loafers. Socially, the fashion groups remained distinct, with Ivys and Gousters choosing to not hang out with each other. An earlier use of gouster on Chicago's south side referred to older black men who dressed in fashons of the late '40s. As late as 1960–61 you could see individuals and groups of these older men in the businesses and social hangouts along 63rd Street. The Five Du-Tones were Willie Guest, Frank McCurrey, LeRoy Joyce, James West, and Andrew Butler. They formed at Patrick Henry High School in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1957. Between 1963 and 1966 the Five Du-Tones recorded nine singles on George Leaner's One-derful Records. "Please Change Your Mind" failed to chart, as did "Come Back Baby". Their third release in 1963 finally got them noticed: "Shake a Tail Feather" was played on R&B stations across the country, but it failed to make the sales and chart position the airplay justified. They continued to record fun dance tunes that helped bridge the gap between doo wop and soul music. Next was "The Gouster" backed with "Monkey See Monkey Do. " The B-side got some airplay, but neither track built on the success of its predecessor. "Nobody But (My Baby)" did even worse, so they tried another dance craze, "The Cool Bird". 1965 saw "Sweet Lips" and "The Woodbine Twine". The last Five Du-Tones single, a ballad called "Mountain of Love" was released in 1966; they disbanded in 1967. "Shake a Tail Feather" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1988 film Hairspray. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Five_Du-Tones Wikipedia
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  • Gouster was a form of dress that was adopted by Black high school students and street gang members in the mid and late 1960s in Chicago. The dress consisted of baggy pants and long collar shirts. Some young men wore Kangaroos or what was described as "Old Men Comforts". Others would purchase Borsalino hats and cashmere coats, to create more of a "gangster" look. Gousters had a reputation for being cool, not flashy.
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  • Gouster
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