Appearance of men, it is said (5)
I believe the answer is:
guise
'appearance' is the definition.
(guise is a kind of appearance)
'men it is said' is the wordplay.
'men' becomes 'guys'.
'it is said' shows a homophone (sound like).
'guys' sounds like 'GUISE'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for guise that I've seen before include "Appearance, semblance" , "Mask" , "Show" , "Shape; pretence" , "Semblance; likeness" .)