Hemlines and belt tailored to capture masculine finishing touch (13)
I believe the answer is:
embellishment
'finishing touch' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'hemlines and belt tailored to capture masculine' is the wordplay.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'tailored' indicates an anagram (the letters are customised ).
'to capture' is an insertion indicator.
'masculine' becomes 'm'.
'hemlines' put after 'belt' is 'belthemlines'.
'belthemlines' is an anagram of 'embellishent'.
'embellishent' enclosing 'm' is 'EMBELLISHMENT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for embellishment that I've seen before include "Adornment, decoration" , "Detail, often untrue, added to a story to make it more interesting" , "Elaboration" , "Additional beautification" , "Fictitious addition" .)