These are jobs in the service sector, often part-time and relying on skills, such as clerical skills, which more women currently hold.The Demos report, which will be published early next year, reveals that not only would men refuse to do these jobs, they couldn't do them if they were handed to them on a plate. Young men really need to be helped to acquire the skills and the attitude to enable them to compete fairly in the new job market. There has been a revolution in work which has brought benefits to new generations of women But you can't stop a revolution halfway through. When I was at school, all the girls were taught how to change an electrical plug, which was justified as necessary as well as progressive Well, now it's time to teach the boys to type.. As the long, lithe, 5ft 10in, dewy-fresh form of Ling walked down the London runways for the sixteenth time during Fashion Week, one fashion editor turned to her neighbour and, with that fabulous gravity that only the fashion world can fully understand, said, "This girl is going to be very, very big." The editor was from Hong Kong's Joyce magazine, which uses a mixture of Western and Far Eastern models, despite selling to an almost entirely Far Eastern readership. For them, the big girls, the ones you've just got to have, are still almost all white.
So, what is it, I asked the editor later, that makes Ling stand out? "She's easy-going, good at getting the job done, polite, a pleasure to work with. She is always on time and is effortlessly adaptable." Yes? And? "She's a Kate Moss, out of that cool chick mould," was the reply. This is not the first time Ling has been compared to Kate Moss, and it is not hard to see why. She shares with Moss that been-there, done-it look, the hint of late nights and hard living that stamps cool on everything she touches. The physical resemblance - girlish skinniness, less-than- perfect teeth, straggly London-girl hair - is apparent to everyone but Ling herself. "It's a big compliment to be compared to Kate Moss," she says. "We are not similar looking, but maybe our chameleon quality is the reason why people compare us.
What I think makes Kate Moss so special is her ability to change her look. I try very hard to give each designer and photographer something different that works for their concept and clothes."Ling arrived in the West two years ago from her native Malaysia Since then, her rise has been swift. A year of working the constant round of Malaysian hotel catwalk shows means she was already a pro on arrival in New York. Within months, CNN fashion show Style With Elsa Klensch had picked up on her star potential, profiling her in a 10-minute feature.