Smart new purse made out of cowhide, initially (6)
I believe the answer is:
spruce
'smart new' is the definition.
'spruce' can be an answer for 'smart' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'new' bit.
'purse made out of cowhide initially' is the wordplay.
'made' indicates anagramming the letters.
'out of' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'cowhide' is 'c'.
'purse' is an anagram of 'sprue'.
'sprue' placed around 'c' is 'SPRUCE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spruce that I've seen before include "tree with needle-like leaves" , "Neat and trim like fir tree" , "Trim - conifer" , "Well-dressed" , "Tidy - fir" .)