Apologies and attempts to hide a piece of underwear (10)

I believe the answer is:

travesties

'apologies' is the definition.
(both can mean a poor example of something)

'attempts to hide a piece of underwear' is the wordplay.
'attempts' becomes 'tries' ('try' can be a synonym of 'attempt').
'to hide' indicates putting letters inside.
'piece of underwear' becomes 'vest'.
'a'+'vest'='avest'
'tries' enclosing 'avest' is 'TRAVESTIES'.

'and' acts as a link.

(Another definition for travesties that I've seen is " They're ridiculously unconvincing".)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.

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