Of all the striking art in Ellen Durkan’s Wilmington apartment — more than 100 pieces, including coffin-shaped works lined up on one wall, drawings as tall as 8 feet on another, a clay skull with earrings in its eyeholes on the coffee table — the most striking is the gold-painted hors d’oeuvres skirt.
She forged the skirt from steel and copper, in an ornate style befitting Marie Antoinette. It’s made to be worn by a model, who wheels around to pass out hors d’oeuvres or desserts at parties, fundraisers or other events. She’s also made two champagne skirts for passing out the bubbly. Rentals start at $1,000, with details at EllenDurkan.com.
Durkan uses “forged fashion” to describe these skirts and various pieces that make for memorable outfits. She named her business Iron Maiden Forge, wordplay that evokes an apocryphal torture device.
She has studied — and taught — many art forms, with her interest in forged fashion starting around 2008, in grad school, “as stationary dresses with nude models,” she said.
“My work revolves around the body,” she says, noting she often uses her small- to medium-size frame when developing and testing pieces. She later added leather and ribbons to increase usability.
“I’m taking traditional blacksmithing methods that you can use to build tools and other useful, functional items, and I’m converting them into art,” she says. “I’m addressing the human body and autonomy and teaching people how to develop their own ideas, skills and relationship to themselves. I want people to be able to feel like they could express themselves and feel good about their bodies.”
Before Durkan made the skirts, which combine art and utility, she made fantastical metal outfits. Each ensemble includes at least four pieces, such as the skirt, bodice, corset and headpiece. Some pieces hug the body, while others thrust far out, piercing and protecting the personal space around the wearer. She said her influences include Gothic, baroque and art nouveau architecture, and it’s also possible to compare them to Valkyries and the fantasy illustrations of Frank Frazzetta.
Videos on her website, shot in Wilmington and scored to haunting music, showcase these outfits in a recent gallery exhibition and a runway show with live models. Her résumé lists more than a dozen runway shows, including multiple ones at French and Australian Fashion Weeks.
So how does it feel to wear these creations? “Powerful,” says Jess McIntern, who estimates that she has modeled the outfits 50 to 100 times, on runways, for photography and at events.
McIntern said people who see her cite “shock and awe, plus admiration.”
“There’s a sense of strength, power and force” wearing them, she says. “The feminine shape is so delicate, but these are aggressive-looking. They’re whimsical yet dangerous, heavy yet approachable. I almost feel like a warrior princess.”
Photographer Joe Hoddinott recalled that he and McIntern met Durkan a decade ago at the Oddball Art Hall at Oddity Bar in Wilmington. He immediately wanted to have McIntern, who’s his partner, model “all this cool stuff.” He compared Durkan to artists H.R. Giger and John Buscema and the style of Conan the Barbarian.
“They’re transformational sorts of pieces,” he said. “Strong yet beautiful. Protective yet revealing. A decidedly feminine perspective on beauty.”
He’s seen the “war wounds” that models have had from the metal, and he’s tried on a piece or two himself. “You feel empowered, like a superhero.”
Pursuing Her Passion
Durkan is the oldest of nine children in her family. Her siblings are all musically inclined, but they all went for “practical” degrees, she said.
She has three degrees in fine arts: associate’s from the Delaware College of Art and Design, bachelor’s from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and master’s from Towson University. She has a certificate from the Artist-Blacksmith Association of North America but said her blacksmithing skills are mostly self-taught. Her online résumé lists six awards from the Delaware Division of the Arts.
She taught various classes at DCAD for 14 years, until the college closed, and she regularly teaches and demonstrates blacksmithing at workshops, conferences and classes worldwide, including a recurring gig in Whiteford, Md., in Harford County. She also offers private lessons.
And she had an “absolutely wild” experience ensuring the stability and wearability of the dress that Wednesday actress Jenna Ortega’s wore for the 2025 Met Gala. The outfit was made entirely from metal rulers.
Since her apartment is small, Durkan keeps many of her creations in her parents’ North Wilmington home. That’s where she also built and installed her forge.
And then there’s one more striking piece of art in her apartment: A self-portrait by Jason Talley, a friend from grad school, who died in 2013. It “reminds me not to give up,” she says.
Photo by Joe Hoddinott with location courtesy of Hotel Du Pont and Jessica Tracz
A Delaware native, Ken Mammarella was 18 when he was first paid as a freelance writer, and since then he’s written extensively about the interesting people, places and issues of Delaware and nearby areas. He also teaches at Wilmington University. For fun, he enjoys watching theater and creating it, playing board games and solving crosswords in ink.