can the word "clothes" be used in the singular?

One of the minor incongruities of English is that the singular of "clothes" (which we use for garments) is "cloth" which we use for the textile substance they are made of , and of course modern English has invented a new plural, "cloths" to mean "varieties of cloth". It has not however, as yet, invented a new singular for "clothes", although it uses "clothe" as a verb (to dress, to put garments on). One has to have recourse to the clumsy "a piece (or article, or item) of clothing" as in "I bought an item of clothing in the mail today," or "you may take one of my clothes from my closet." I suppose the assumption is that whenever we need to refer to a single piece of clothing we can give it its specific name (e.g. I bought a shirt in the mail today, or "You may take a gown from my closet").

No, "clothes" is always plural. There is no singular form. Say a coat, a dress. "A piece of clothing" does NOT describe what you bought from the mall.

No, you cannot use it in the singular. In your two examples if you substitute the indefinite article "a" and "one" with the definite article "the", then you would make the sentences correct. Or the other way would be to remove both "a" and "one". Then again the sentences would be correct. Hope this helps.

No i dont believe so. You would use the article of clothing it is (Shirt, pants, skirt, blouse etc.).

Eg.

" i bought a SHIRT from the mall yesterday"

"You can take one BLOUSE from my closet".

No.

If it's just a single item of clothing you would actually say what it is.

"You can take one pair of pants/one shirt from my closet."

No.. Its wrong.. It always will be with the Clothes or simple clothes..

as an adjective, clothes closet.

"clothes" and "clothing" have the same meaning. "clothes" is plural only; "clothing" is singular only.

No, clothes is only plural. Maybe you could say GARMENT.