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ABSTRACT The article outlines a sociological construction of the object of clothing. Contrary to usual analyses, clothing is not understood in terms of material culture or ostentatious consumption, but rather as communication, i.e. as vestimentary operation. Its symbolical autonomy creates a zone of indifference towards the body and, in particular cases, towards the person. This approach is able to show that vestimentary practices vary with the form of societal differentiation. While dress codes are redundant and functional in respect to the social structure in stratified societies, an autonomous universe of clothing as medium of communication forms itself in the fully developed culture of exterior appearance. It contains a special code, programs, symbiotic mechanisms and a memory of its own. Triggers for such tendencies towards autonomy are a public sphere, forming itself as a correlate of urbanization, a money economy under market conditions and fashion as a theme of reflection for societal self-description.