In the given article, the lexical units associated with the umbrella concept “clothes” in medieval Germany and its further development in idioms are considered as the material under study. The purpose of the work is to trace the influence of the concept “clothes” on the changes in the lexical composition of the language. According to the authors, this topic is studied insufficiently and may be of interest for further research, with a view to a more detailed understanding of the constituent components of idioms. The choice of this material is historically conditioned and is the most common in all strata of society. The chosen period of time is of interest from the point of view of intensive development in all spheres of life in medieval Germany. During this period of time, the country experienced an economic, cultural and social upsurge. The formation and development of the third class of society also occurred at that time. The authors relied on the material of earlier studies by German and Russian authors in the field of language history, phraseology, and linguistics. Studying the specified vocabulary in their work, the authors used the descriptive method and came to the conclusion that in the course of time some words fell out of use due to the fact that the objects (garments) they denoted were no longer used / worn. Some other words have retained their meaning and are widely used in modern vocabulary. A number of lexical units have been preserved in phraseological (idiomatic) locutions.