What is the difference between “clothes” and “clothing”?

Question

Do some google I find that clothes work like objects like:

• You should pack your clothes. → Yes
• You should pack your clothing. → No

Can you tell me the main difference between clothing and clothes?

Answer 1

Clothes are those items you wear.

Clothing is pretty much the same, but it seems it can refer to a special type of clothes (the type it refers to depends on the context).

You can see a useful note on the OALD that I'll paste here for future reference:

Clothes or clothing?

Clothing is more formal than clothes and is used especially to mean ‘a particular type of clothes’. There is no singular form of clothes or clothing: a piece/an item/an article of clothing is used to talk about one thing that you wear such as a dress or shirt.

Answer 2

There is really no difference. They are synonyms when used in that context.

The only real difference is that clothing may be used in a gerund phrase:

Clothing the poor was Martin's principal objective.

Answer 3

If there is a difference, it is very slight. Both would be considered acceptable, but some might argue that "clothing" generally denotes a general category, whereas "clothes" indicates a specific set of clothing.