Each clad in the costliest? To the contrary (7)
I believe the answer is:
dearest
'the contrary' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'each clad in the costliest?' is the wordplay.
'each' becomes 'ea' (abbreviation).
'clad in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the costliest?' becomes 'drest' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ea' going into 'drest' is 'DEAREST'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dearest that I've seen before include "The beloved one is most costly" , "Loved one" , "Affectionate address" , "Most highly valued or most expensive" , "most excessive" .)