Protective garment on the whole (7)
I believe the answer is:
overall
'protective garment' is the definition.
(overall is a kind of protective garment)
'on the whole' is the wordplay.
'on' becomes 'over' (I've seen this before).
'the whole' becomes 'all' (I've seen this before).
'over'+'all'='OVERALL'
(Other definitions for overall that I've seen before include "Protective cover for worker" , "on average" , "Comprehensive - protective garment" , "protector" , "All round" .)