Woman starts to decorate expensive material (5)
I believe the answer is:
suede
'material' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'woman starts to decorate expensive' is the wordplay.
'woman' becomes 'sue' (**).
'starts to' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'decorate expensive' is 'de'.
'sue'+'de'='SUEDE'
(Other definitions for suede that I've seen before include "Type of leather" , "Soft, velvety leather" , "Brushed leather" , "Undressed leather" , "Kid possibly" .)