Realistic growth shown by shoe leather, initially (5,3,3)
I believe the answer is:
warts and all
'leather initially' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'realistic growth shown by shoe' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'growth' could be 'wart' (I've seen this before) and 'wart' is located in the answer.
'shoe' could be 'sandal' (sandal is a kind of shoe) and 'sandal' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'l' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for warts and all that I've seen before include "Every part, both good and bad" , "With shortcomings frankly revealed" , "with every horror exposed" , "Cromwell so pictured" , "regardless of faults!" .)