'Oversized' Jacket © Stany Dederen

Oversized garments shield the body from unwanted gazes, and play a type of hide-and seek with the body’s contours. They blur the gender distinctions at the core of Western dress codes. Maison Martin Margiela’s blow-up versions of archetypical garments (like the trench coat, for example), made in an Italian size 78 or 80, deconstruct the notions of both haute couture (made to measure) and prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear): they do not fit the wearer’s body and do not come in predefined commercial sizes. All the elements of the garment – the zips, buttons, pockets – are extended, all in proportion. Margiela’s oversize garments deconstruct the fashion system, in which pre-made, industrial garments are produced for a multitude of different body types in standard sizes: these garments erase the idea of a standard body type with the premise of ‘one (over)size fits all’.