Escort's appeal when top stripped off (4)
I believe the answer is:
lead
'escort's' is the definition.
(to escort someone somewhere is to lead them there)
'appeal when top stripped off' is the wordplay.
'appeal when' becomes 'lea' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'top' becomes 'middy' (middy is a kind of top).
'stripped off' indicates the central letters (the outer letters are stripped off).
The centre of 'middy' is 'd'.
'lea'+'d'='LEAD'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lead that I've seen before include "Precede; element" , "Primary" , "Advantage" , "Go first" , "chain" .)