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Fashion

24th Jan 2024

All you need to know about the new ‘mob wife’ trend on TikTok

Anna Martin

mob wife

TikTok has moved from cottage-core to mob wife aesthetics

There’s been so many micro trends in between like, the clean-girl look, quiet luxury, and somewhere in the mix was an obsession with pastel-coloured Le Creuset cookware.

Now it’s all about dark sultry makeup, leather skirts, and lashings of leopard print as everyone hops on this new trend.

It started taking off in the first week of 2024 when TikTok star Mikayla Toninato started showing off the glamorous, messy appeal of teased hair, smoky makeup, and bigger-the-better outfits.

Kim Kardashian and Hailey Bieber can take a back seat, instead, Carmela Soprano, the wife of mob boss Tony Soprano played by Edie Falco, and Adriana La Cerva, is the new it girl.

Where it did get its start?

@ktrivz manifesting a 24 carat diamond tennis necklace to match my mob wife energy #greenscreen ♬ original sound – kayla trivieri

Let’s forget about the TikTok influencers and their fur coats for a second and take it back to when we first saw the mob wife look to gain traction.

It all started with the pop-culture depictions of Italian-American families in ‘The Sopranos’, ‘Goodfellas’, and ‘The Godfather’, classic films and TV series that skyrocketed in popularity.

The women behind the gangsters, though often staying home, were all dressed to the nines, clad in fur coats, and wearing lashings of gold jewelry just to hang around the house.

What was more important than their outfits was their attitude. They were always unbothered by anyone else, confident and unafraid to speak their minds with the first words that came to them.

It didn’t matter if they were making a Sunday sauce or heading to the shops, these ladies always had places to be and no time to waste.

How to get the look

mob wife
Credit: Getty

To channel the mob wife esthetic, envision sexy black leather, an abundance of animal prints, stacks of gold jewellery, oversized sunglasses, and full fur coats.

Instead of trying to blend into the crowd the look is loud, and proud and demands to be seen,

Top it off with voluminous hair and red lipstick.

The key is to be unapologetically over-the-top, think Gloria Pritchett from The Modern Family. If you’re asking yourself is this too much? It’s not.

The makeup

@madddnot #mobwifemakeup #makeuptutorial ♬ Love In Portofino – Dalida & Raymond Lefèvre Et Son Grand Orchestre

When it comes to makeup, the rule of thumb is the bolder, the better.

Think eyes so smokey you might end up calling the fire brigade, hair so big it holds all your secrets.

The new era of mob wife is all about quick-and-easy tutorials, acknowledging that today’s women may not have the luxury of ample time at the beauty salon paid for by their husband’s…business dealings…

It’s about looking good for yourself, not just for your made-up mob boss husband.

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