Frantic partners put on odd bits of dress (10)
I believe the answer is:
despairing
'frantic' is the definition.
(frantic can mean despairing or panicking)
'partners put on odd bits of dress' is the wordplay.
'partners' becomes 'pairing' (pair of people).
'put on' says to put letters next to each other.
'odd bits of' indicates alternate letters.
The alternating letters of 'dress' are 'des'.
'pairing' after 'des' is 'DESPAIRING'.
(Other definitions for despairing that I've seen before include "Losing all hope" , "hopeless" .)