Item of clothing Edward avoided (7)
I believe the answer is:
skirted
'avoided' is the definition.
(skirting is a kind of avoiding)
'item of clothing edward' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'clothing' could be 'skirt' (skirt is a kind of clothing) and 'skirt' is found within the answer.
'edward' could be 'ed' (short for Edward) and 'ed' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for skirted that I've seen before include "Went round" , "Flanked" , "in a mini?" .)