In this paper we address the problem of finding an initial good grasping point for the robotic manipulation of textile objects lying on a flat surface. Given as input a point cloud of the cloth acquired with a 3D camera, we propose choosing as grasping points those that maximize a new measure of wrinkledness, computed from the distribution of normal directions over local neighborhoods. Real grasping experiments using a robotic arm are performed, showing that the proposed measure leads to promising results. ; Postprint (author’s final draft)