Crossword Genius

A serving man's lifted clothing and not foreign lady (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

signora

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'foreign lady' is the definition.
'signora' can be an answer for 'lady' (I've seen this before). I am unsure of the 'foreign' bit.

'a serving man's lifted clothing and not' is the wordplay.
'serving man' becomes 'gis' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'lifted' is a reversal indicator (going up in down clue).
'clothing' indicates putting letters inside (some letters cover up or clothe others).
'and not' becomes 'nor' ('nor' means 'and also not').
'a'+'gis'='agis'
'agis' back-to-front is 'siga'.
'siga' going around 'nor' is 'SIGNORA'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for signora that I've seen before include "wife on the Continent" , "Italian married title" , "lady from Italy" , "Foreign woman" , "Italian woman" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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