The Spanish writer with garment lifting becomes tetchy (9)
I believe the answer is:
irascible
'tetchy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the spanish writer with garment lifting' is the wordplay.
'the spanish' becomes 'el' ('the' in Spanish).
'writer' becomes 'bic' (Bic is a manufacturer of pens).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'garment' becomes 'sari' (sari is a kind of garment).
'lifting' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'el'+'bic'+'sari'='elbicsari'
'elbicsari' reversed gives 'IRASCIBLE'.
'becomes' is the link.
(Other definitions for irascible that I've seen before include "Trigger-happy" , "Short-tempered" , "easily upset" , "Grouchy" , "Tetchy" .)