The texts of the book testify to a ten-year and more (1957-1969) constant reflection of Roland Barthes on clothing, for this, as he believed, a total social phenomenon. Reflection that will culminate, moreover, with the brilliant semiotic analysis of his book "The Fashion System" (1967). Starting from Saussure's vision of a total science of signs, the author goes beyond the traditional historiography of clothing (with detailed inventories of valuable clothes of the past or their correlation with the "spirit of the times"), and boldly applies the achievements of linguistics to the study of clothing. It urges us to see clothing not as a constant renewal but as a system governed by deep regularity. This internal adventure of the forms of clothing must be studied before it is correlated with any historical event. Because clothing, beyond its purely practical and ornamental function, primarily performs a semiotic function. For its better explanation, the author will define concepts such as borrowing, detail, fashion, chic, distinction, taste.