Shabby party clothes found by journalist (3-5)
I believe the answer is:
dog-eared
'shabby' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'party clothes found by journalist' is the wordplay.
'party' becomes 'do' (do can informally mean a party).
'clothes' becomes 'gear' (I've seen this before).
'found by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'do'+'gear'+'ed'='DOG-EARED'
(Other definitions for dog-eared that I've seen before include "Of book, having page corners turned down" , "Of book, with pages crumpled at the corners" , "Shabby with corners of pages turned down" , "Worn and shabby" , "Of book, with pages turned down at corners" .)