In this article, we introduce a feature vector that is used as a motion-shape signature to capture the spatiotemporal shape characteristics of cloth and can be used as a similarity measure for physics based cloth animations. In our approach, the feature vector not only contains the underlying geometry of the cloth as a mesh, but also measured quantities from the simulation that describe the deformation state and, therefore, its shape. The motion-shape signature can be used to retrieve a cloth simulation from a collection of simulations that matches a given input animation. This approach enables the goal-oriented creation of cloth animations and directability that, to the best of our knowledge, has yet to be explored.