Vintage department store regularly checks gold standard for design (7)
I believe the answer is:
bauhaus
'standard for design' is the definition.
(Bauhaus was a German art school and movement)
'vintage department store regularly checks gold' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'gold' could be 'au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold) and 'au' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
(Other definitions for bauhaus that I've seen before include "German school of architectural and applied arts, founded in 1919" , "German art school" , "Architectural style" , "1919-33 German school of architecture" , "Twentieth century German school of architecture" .)