English Version | Ludicrously capacious coat

Imagine asking a bus driver how he keeps his vehicle clean and getting the following explanation in response: “I wait for a group of maxi-coats to get aboard and then I make them all move way back to the rear.” This is precisely what happened at the end of the 1960s, when a very proud bus driver told the New York Daily News that this was how he made his living. In those days, ultra-long coats were seen as a kind of right-hand cousin of the miniskirt - which, as we know, was not well received by society either - even though, as their name suggests, they were diametrically, and ironically, the opposite in length. In short, they were a public health hazard, to the extent that the American National Safety Council published advertisements on how best to wear them: the notes issued detailed instructions on how to lift coats in extreme situations such as walking through a puddle of water or on an escalator, recommended checking (always) when entering a restaurant to avoid the risk of tripping, and even gave detailed directions on how to get in, sit in and get out of a cab. To date, there have been no known serious accidents caused by contact with this garment. However, the fait-divers surrounding the early years of maxi coats - an invention we owe thanks to designers like Marc Bohan of Dior, who was inspired by the military tailoring coats in the movie Doctor Zhivago - show us that people were panicking. How was a generation of women brought up with six-inch skirts going to adapt to these "cover-alls" that seemed to sweep the floor?

Very simple: wearing miniskirts under long coats, making them the "shield" against the common enemy - the gaze of others, who insisted on criticizing the choices of the female population, whatever they might be. Bust magazine quotes an edition of the respected newspaper The Washington Post which reads: “Don’t run for a taxi in a maxi. Don’t hang it on a low-slung coat rack, and don’t forget to dust your closet floors. Don’t carry it tossed over your arm, or its own arms will paddle along on the sidewalk beside you.” If you think that around this time we were in one of the most most complicated moments of the Vietnam War, it's almost surreal to imagine the prominence given to such a mundane subject - something that, from this distance, seems like a non-issue. But history is what it was, not what we think it should have been, and this is the history of maxi coats: controversial, polemical, disruptive. Fast forward to the final months of 2023, when XXL coats are celebrated as works of art. It's not new, of course, but it's no exaggeration to say that we're living in a time of adoration for this garment. The maxi coat has long since become the main character energy of our winters, our best ally on a trip to the supermarket on a Saturday morning, when the hangover hasn't settled, or on a Thursday night, when that birthday party really calls for a little black dress but it's freezing cold. When she walks through the door in a maxi coat, a woman stops being just herself and becomes the best version of herself - more dramatic, more cinematic, more sensual. Anything can happen to her, because she is in charge of the direction of her life. If you're only buying one item this season, make sure you buy a big, enveloping coat, with the fabric touching the floor, the kind that will make your interlocutors wonder if you didn't make a mistake and order three sizes too big. It wasn't a mistake, it was love.