The female's modelling initially for statue (4)
I believe the answer is:
herm
'statue' is the definition.
(I know that herm is a type of statue)
'the female's modelling initially' is the wordplay.
'the female' becomes 'her' (I've seen this before).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'modelling' is 'm'.
'her'+'m'='HERM'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for herm that I've seen before include "bust" , "One of the Channel Islands" , "Island in English Channel" .)