Clothes designer gutted with curvy characters (7)
I believe the answer is:
dresses
'clothes' is the definition.
(I know this)
'designer gutted with curvy characters' is the wordplay.
'gutted' suggests removing the centre (to gut something is to remove its insides).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'curvy characters' becomes 'esses' (more than one S).
'designer' with its centre removed is 'dr'.
'dr'+'esses'='DRESSES'
(Other definitions for dresses that I've seen before include "sacks, possibly" , "Costumes" , "Frocks" , "Decorates" , "Gets tired" .)