Arrogance initially helped creative director (7)
I believe the answer is:
hauteur
'arrogance' is the definition.
(I know that arrogance can be written as hauteur)
'initially helped creative director' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'director' could be 'auteur' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'auteur' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'h' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hauteur that I've seen before include "Arrogant disdain" , "High-handedness" , "Lofty pride, looking down on others" , "Proud arrogance" , "Proud disdain" .)