The attire of failures? (4)
I believe the answer is:
duds
I believe this is a double definition.
'the attire' is the first definition.
(thesaurus)
'failures?' is the second definition.
(dud is a kind of failure)
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for duds that I've seen before include "One assumes them" , "Bombs that fail to explode" , "Failures; clothes" .)