Reveal dancing dresses and originally rejected shade of purple (8)
I believe the answer is:
lavender
'purple' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Pale purple' mean 'lavender' so perhaps 'purple' could also mean 'lavender')
'reveal dancing dresses and originally rejected shade' is the wordplay.
'dancing' indicates anagramming the letters.
'dresses' means one lot of letters goes inside another (dress can mean cover).
'and' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and').
'originally rejected shade' becomes 'd' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'reveal' with letters rearranged gives 'laveer'.
'n'+'d'='nd'
'laveer' placed around 'nd' is 'LAVENDER'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lavender that I've seen before include "Shrub with fragrant blue flowers" , "it should smell nice" , "Fragrant purple flower used to scent linen etc" , "Fragrant, blue-flowered shrub" , "Plant used in perfumery" .)