She borrows from the style of Lorraine Bracco in “Goodfellas”, the silhouette of Kim Kardashian and the coldness of Melania Trump.
The “mob wife” or “mafiosa” embodies this woman with assumed sexual charisma, who has worked hard to build an empire and who makes it known with designer sunglasses and flashy accessories.
Shining gold chain, she also wears fur like no other, perched on high leather boots, with her vulgar and alluring makeup.
In less than ten days, the hashtag #MobWifeAesthetics exceeded 50 million views.
But why is the “mafioso’s wife” so popular, since the start of 2024, on social networks?
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As reported by AFP, this style has for some time been favored by many stars such as Dua Lipa, Shay, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner.
“The mob wife is bold, tough, adventurous and liberated,” explains Sarah Jordan Arcuri (120,000 subscribers on Instagram), a 29-year-old American-Italian from New Jersey, at the origin of this trend.
Indeed, the personalities who adopt this look also adopt a state of mind: far from the “trophy wife”, they show off their jewelry and their expensive bags without a man at arm's length.
This trend has not escaped one of its most fervent messengers, Francis Ford Coppola.
“I heard that the mafioso wife aesthetic is making a comeback,” wrote
the director of The
Godfather
, a cult trilogy about mafiosos, in an Instagram post.
On Tik Tok, influencers love all the “mob wife” accessories, but in the 2024 era;
faux fur (of course), we find leopard prints, tight stockings, gold cascading jewelry and bling-bling chain belts to slip around the waist.
On the face side, TikToker Mikayla Nogueira (15.3 million subscribers) recommends “smoky eyes” for the mob wife's perfect makeup, kohl, unlimited false eyelashes and “dark red lipstick.”
All accompanied by a hyper-voluminous 1980s-style blow-dry.
"Self-confidence"
Gone is the trend of discreet luxury (“quiet luxury”), of the “clean girl”, wise with a minimalist look, seen on all the influencers in 2023. The codes of the good chic bourgeoisie and the trend of “clean girl” advocating minimalism no longer have a place on the podium.
“Google searches for “mobwife” increased by 2,122% in the last 90 days, when on TikTok the hashtag #mobwife gained 160.9 million views and #mobwifeaesthetic received 130.6 million views,” noted the trend experts at Journo Research.
A success that we owe to pop culture, obviously, and to its mafia films which created the style of these female characters, not noted for their smooth beauty but for their charisma and for their dog.
We think of Elvira Hancock, sublimely played by Michelle Pfeiffer in
Scarface
(1983), Connie in Coppola's
The Godfather
, Carmela in the series Sopranos which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, or more recently Polly Gray in the series
Pinky Blinders
.
Recently, another series supported this trend with the release of
Griselda
, on Netflix, telling the story of a Colombian cocaine baroness in the 1970s and 1980s in Miami.
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Cultural Appropriation
To detractors who denounce a possible “cultural appropriation” of the Italian-American mafiosa, the influencer Saeah Jordan Arcuri responds: “The mob wife is not a philosophy of life, of finding a partner or of enrichment.
It’s simply to do yourself good, boost your self-confidence and emancipate yourself.
It’s certainly not just for Italian-Americans, but for all women who want it,” she concludes.