‘Mob wife’ is the flashy fashion trend of early 2024
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British-Albanian singer Dua Lipa (left) and Italian-American influencer Sarah Jordan Arcuri sporting the "mob wife" fashion trend.
PHOTOS: AFP, THESWEETPAISANA/INSTAGRAM
PARIS – “Mob wife” is the dominant fashion look of early 2024: knowingly over-the-top, even trashy – the tough woman who has fought her way to money and power, and is not afraid to show it off.
Millions of TikTok users have suddenly become obsessed with the look of women in movies such as Scarface (1983) and Goodfellas (1990), television series The Sopranos (1999 to 2007) or even the cold, hard style of former first lady of the United States Melania Trump.
The look leans hard on the 1980s – faux fur over lots of black, including tight stockings, leather, Lurex and sky-high heels.
It is about being “bold, tough, fearless and unapologetic – all traits I think are admirable, aspirational”, said one of the influencers behind the trend, Sarah Jordan Arcuri.
The 29-year-old Italian-American from New Jersey – home of The Sopranos – has been pushing this aesthetic to her 120,000 Instagram followers for a couple of years.
It is the accessories that really make it: lots of heavy gold bracelets, chain belts and rings stacked on one another.
“All the gold gifted by your husband. You never take it off,” said Arcuri with a laugh.
TikTok star Mikayla Nogueira, with 15.3 million followers, posted a wildly popular tutorial on how to do “mob wife” make-up: heavy kohl around the eyes, fake eyelashes and a “dark red lipstick”.
The hair needs some serious volume, ideally an 1980s-style perm.
American personality Kendall Jenner, seen here at the Jacquemus Womenswear Ready-to-wear Spring-Summer 2024 collection in France on Jan 29, embraces the “mob wife” style.
PHOTO: AFP
It is a style that has been embraced by social media favourites such as British-Albanian singer Dua Lipa and American models Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber.
Naturally, theirs is a somewhat more sophisticated version, and they present themselves not as trophy wives, but as hard-nosed business magnates in their own right.
In the pendulum swings of fashion, “mob wife” is the natural reaction to 2023’s “quiet luxury”, in which the ultra-wealthy sought to play down their vast riches with discreet and sober outfits.
In Griselda, Sofia Vergara stars as the Colombian cocaine baroness Griselda Blanco in the 1970s and 1980s, Miami.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
Google searches for “mob wife” have increased by more than 2,000 per cent in the last three months, while its hashtag has gained 161 million views on TikTok, said trend consultancy Journo Research.
Much of this may be fuelled by Gen Z’s rediscovery of actress Michelle Pfeiffer’s style in Scarface, recently streaming on Netflix, and amusement over actress Edie Falco’s looks in The Sopranos, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024.
Griselda, a new Netflix series starring Sofia Vergara about Colombian cocaine baroness Griselda Blanco in the 1970s and 1980s in Miami, has added to the hype.
Sofia Vergara’s “mob wife” look in Griselda has also added to the hype.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
Inevitably, it did not take long for a corner of the Internet to find something offensive in all this, with claims that fashionistas are guilty of “cultural appropriation” for borrowing from Italian-American mobsters and Latin American narcos.
Arcuri dismisses the criticism. “It’s just a way of having fun and feeling empowered. It’s not just for Italian-American girls. Anyone has to feel free to join in.” AFP
