Elves are beautiful in elegant stripy tops (7)
I believe the answer is:
fairies
'elves' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'beautiful in elegant stripy tops' is the wordplay.
'beautiful' becomes 'fair' (similar in meaning).
'tops' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'in elegant stripy' is 'ies'.
'fair'+'ies'='FAIRIES'
'are' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fairies that I've seen before include "imaginary beings" , "Garden dwellers" , "The little people" , "good people" , "Sprites" .)