Those taken by the tailor who’s in dire straits? (9,8)

'who's in dire straits?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.

'those taken by the tailor' is the subsidiary indication.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'taken' could be 'ate' (eating is a kind of taking) and 'ate' is present in the answer.
'by' could be 'per' and 'per' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?