The urgency of the work is connected with the need to study the traditional clothing of Tuva, which is part of the "cultural core" of the Tuvan people and contributes to the preservation of its national identity. The aim of the work is to study the interrelationships of spiritual (sacred) and material (terrestrial) in the semantics of Tuvan costume. The subject of the study is the Tuvan folk costume, the subject is the symbolic-symbolic nature of the traditional costume of the Tuvinians. The expression of the features of the cut, decor and shape of the Tuvan costume are, on the one hand, a unique ethnic specificity, and on the other hand carry the universal laws of the Universe inherent in the cultures of all the peoples of the Earth. The result of the study is the systematization of cultural types of costume and the identification of their symbolic sounding in a concrete material form (shape, cut, decor elements).