Garment artist's returned reaching India (4)
I believe the answer is:
sari
'garment' is the definition.
(I know that sari is a type of garment)
'artist's returned reaching india' is the wordplay.
'artist's' becomes 'RA's' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'returned' is a reversal indicator.
'reaching' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'ras' backwards is 'sar'.
'sar'+'i'='SARI'
(Other definitions for sari that I've seen before include "Traditional dress of Indian women" , "Traditional Indian women's dress" , "habit" , "South Asian garment (variant spelling)" , "Hindu woman's dress" .)