Ensuring an element of fashion in the offing? (7,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
dressed to kill
'in the offing?' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'ensuring an element of fashion' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'an' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one) and 'i' is found within the answer.
'element' could be 'se' (Se is an example) and 'se' is present in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dressed to kill that I've seen before include "Attired so as to attract and impress others" , "in 29 ac [BATTLEDRESS]?" , "Wearing clothes intended to make one look drop-dead gorgeous" , "Done up to the nines" , "in fine threads" .)