With the development of technology and the improvement of people’s quality of life, smart apparel is making its way into various lifestyle scenarios such as healthcare, work, and play. The article uses the smart clothing literature in the SCI database as the research object. Accurately searched 1852 documents by PICO literature search method. The Citespace software was then used to analyze the relevant studies. The article uses pictures, tables, and formulas to examine four aspects of the smart clothing field. These four areas are general publication trends in smart clothing research, major research countries, important research organizations, and current research hotspots in the field of smart clothing. Analysis found that the current research direction of smart clothing mainly includes smart fabrics and flexible sensors implanted in clothing in two ways. It has a great potential for development and is adapted to the needs and lifestyles of modern people. Intelligent clothing will become a new development direction in the field of clothing in the future.