Church primate with gold hat (7)
I believe the answer is:
chapeau
'hat' is the definition.
(I know that hat can be written as chapeau)
'church primate with gold' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'ch' (common abbreviation).
'primate' becomes 'ape' (large primate).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'gold' becomes 'Au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold).
'ch'+'ape'+'au'='CHAPEAU'
(Other definitions for chapeau that I've seen before include "Cap (French or heraldic?)" , "(French) hat" , "something to put on noodles" , "Fashionable hat" .)