Fashion company's happy to stock ugly little baby's tops (8)
I believe the answer is:
mulberry
'fashion company's' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'happy to stock ugly little baby's tops' is the wordplay.
'happy' becomes 'merry' ().
'to stock' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters contain or stock others).
'tops' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'ugly little babys' is 'ulb'.
'merry' enclosing 'ulb' is 'MULBERRY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mulberry that I've seen before include "So-called port substitute" , "The tree on which the silkworm feeds" , "dark purple" , "plant" , "the centre of attention in nursery circles?" .)