By Arpita Quadir

Yes, the mob wife aesthetic surfaced on FashionTok months ago, but I’m still obsessed. In fact, Rihanna’s recent cover shoot with Perfect magazine, which perfectly encapsulates the sexy, over-the-top look, got me thinking again about why this trend gained traction among Gen Z and millennial women, and what it says about how they present themselves in today’s society. 

For the uninitiated, the mob wife style is the height of maximalism and loud luxury. The Italian-American-influenced style requires big furs, dark colours, red accents, sultry makeup and flashy jewellery, all of which imply status and money. And it’s a stark contrast to another recent internet fashion trend: the clean girl aesthetic. Where that look was structured, minimal and neat, the mob wife aesthetic is the complete opposite: messy, attention-grabbing and extravagant. While both stylistic approaches are associated with an air of maturity and confidence, the mob wife is marked by its grandiosity, and people online generally seem to feel the same way about it. Some say that the mob wife aesthetic is a representation of transitioning from girlhood into womanhood and entering a new era in life. I think this might be partly true, but there's likely more to it, and honestly, it’s not what interests me about the trend. What I am interested in is looking at why the aesthetic popularized and became one of the top-ranking fashion trends.

A style analysis from Data, But Make it Fashion revealed that as the mob wife gained popularity, the clean girl aesthetic was steadily decreasing in popularity by 16 per cent— basically, ‘fashion girlies’ on TikTok are opting out of wearing varied shades of beige, simple patterns and monochromatic looks. The mob wife aesthetic is a refreshing break from basic neutrals (even though we can all agree leopard has always been a neutral) and a chance to try out a new style. 

The trend might feel random, but there’s actually a precedence 

If the mob wife aesthetic feels familiar, and not just because of Goodfellas or the Sopranos, it’s probably because it is. We’ve seen this before, in all of the glitz and the glamour of the Roaring 20s. 

After the end of World War 1 in 1918, an economic collapse called for new employment opportunities and the introduction of a new job market. The expansion of the automobile industry introduced more jobs to the market and helped launch people into the 1920s with financial stability. As people entered financial prosperity and the economy settled, there was a new lust for life. People were grateful for their lives after experiencing so much loss, which prompted the start of the Roaring 20s. The 1920s also marks the introduction of some of the most iconic fashion moments of all time, like flapper dresses and form-fitting suits. We can kind of see some similarities between the 1920s and how people entered a new era of fashion then, and what is happening now with the mob wife aesthetic. I doubt this moment in fashion will go down as being as remarkable as the 1920s was, but in a post-COVID world where financial pressures are high, it suggests something of our own Roaring 20s, and the mob wife aesthetic might just be an attest to that.

Modern women can relate to the mob wife persona

Of course, we’ve seen the over-the-top style since the ‘20s—maximalism styling ruled the 80s and reappeared in the mid-2010s, for example. But this fashion moment has felt unique to me because it is so much more seductive and put together compared to past examples of maximalist styling (can you believe that we as a society thought that it was fashionable to wear a pullover crew neck sweater with short shorts and high heels in the 2010s?). I think the level of sophistication has something to do with the mob wife herself. A mob wife is often perceived as weak and in need of help. But really, she’s smarter and stronger than she appears and always knows more than she lets on—something many women can relate to. Take the character of Mona Lisa Vita (Marisa Tomei) in the 1992 classic courtroom comedy, My Cousin Vinny. An outspoken, loud and stubborn woman, Vita’s goal is to support her partner, newly minted lawyer Vinny Gambini (Joe Pesci). Vita is determined to get married after Gambini wins his first-ever case, defending his cousin and a friend, who are on trial for a murder they did not commit. Unfortunately, Gambini fails to impress the court at every hearing, so in a last-ditch effort to save his clients from jail, he calls Vita to the stand as an expert witness. After spending years helping her dad and brothers in an auto shop, she knows everything there is to know about cars and provides the court with the necessary testimony to prove the defendant’s innocence. Vita isn’t the wife of a mob man but she does inhabit all of the stereotypical traits you would expect from the wife of a man in the mob. 

The mob wife has some power of her own, but she is still seen as an accessory to an even more powerful man. Part of the allure of the mob wife is her mystery, sex appeal, beauty and style. The mob wife is enticing because nobody else knows how much she knows or doesn’t know about her husband's affairs. Is she clueless and powerless or is she using her husband for his money? From where I stand, it’s the latter, but regardless, the mob wife will never give her husband up. In every story, the mob wife is put on the back burner until somebody needs her. She has a story of her own to tell, and if we’re being honest, it’s usually more interesting than the mob man’s. Even when the mob wife is complicit in her husband’s misdeeds, there is a kind of complexity that is part of the appeal, especially in comparison to the clean girl, who’s blandly inoffensive in hopes of blending in. Gen Zers can relate to the mob wife in the sense of feeling misunderstood and wanting to stand out, which explains why this trend might not be that random after all. 

Gen Z is financially screwed

And then there’s the sense of fun and recklessness. The consensus among Gen Z is that the world is going to end. Between rising costs, rising sea levels, hyper-consumerism and the internet, this generation says they’re feeling hopeless and have an impending sense of doom. Previous generations were more likely to work in one job to make a living that provided them with a stable life and savings to fall back on, but that kind of lifestyle feels like an impossible feat for Gen Z to achieve. In a time when stability isn’t really an option, people have chosen to find ways to spend their money on the small things. It doesn’t feel like there is enough time to work for 40 years and start enjoying life after that, so lots of Gen Z have chosen to abandon the idea. 

Quiet luxury is another recent trend closely tied to the clean girl aesthetic and it’s usually associated with generational wealth and old money. This idea feels out of touch because most people just… don’t have that. The clean girl aesthetic places a large emphasis on quiet signifiers of wealth; conversely, the mob wife’s more conspicuous wealth is associated with the nouveau riche. This idea of wealth aligns closely with Gen Z as they ditch traditional jobs and find new ways to generate wealth. Whether it's through social media, new business ventures or advancing the tech industry, Gen Z is making their money and showing it off.

Like every trend on the internet, the mob wife aesthetic isn’t without its problems. The aesthetic could be interpreted as glorifying crime and ignoring the genuine victims of the mob, including the women associated with the mob.

However, a trend is also just a trend and people on the internet had fun with the aesthetic. Just as embracing the clean girl aesthetic didn’t turn us all into scions of wealthy families, dressing like a mob wife isn’t going to catapult us into a life of crime – we would just end up looking fabulously ostentatious for a while (just like Rihanna). And let’s be real, trends, no matter what we choose to call them, will always come back. But what feels different to me about this one, in particular, is the way that it completely came out of nowhere, and yet it was perfectly timed to what the internet so desperately needed: A drastic change from the way things were to launch us into what is to come. I could get on board with having a little more, if you will, chutzpah in my life, inspired by the mob wife aesthetic, which is why I’m still thinking about it today.