What Does the “Mob Wife Aesthetic” Actually Mean? (2024)

“I hear the ‘mob wife aesthetic’ is making a come back…” wrote Francis Ford Coppola in an Instagram post last week. Yes, even the Godfather director had something to say about the viral TikTok trend, which at that point was barely a week old.

It seems to have started on, of all days, January 6, when a 28-year-old Canadian blockchain product developer named Kayla Trivieri shared a video declaring: “Clean girl is out; mob wife era is in, okay?” It has since been viewed over a million times, spawning a million other videos both for and against the trend, which encourages animal prints, flashy jewelry, big fur coats, and such (plus trend pieces like this one and the nod from Don Coppola himself).

TikTok’s algorithm is designed to bring these declarative, catchy “aesthetics” to the top of our feed, and these trends are often criticized for their shallowness and disconnect from anything anyone is actually doing or feeling in real life. The “mob wife aesthetic” is just the latest to surface. But it does stand out against trends of late for its real-life roots in culture and its mature, brazen attitude, which feels like a shift.

Of course, women were dressing like mob wives long before TikTok made it trendy. The Sopranos celebrated its 25th anniversary (and joined TikTok) the same week that Trivieri’s video went viral, although she claims she had “no idea” about the HBO series’ milestone when she posted it; she said she was simply responding to what she saw on the streets of New York City, where she lives. So if anything, this is all just a reminder of what we’ve been missing, or perhaps are discovering for the first time.

As Trivieri, who is of Italian descent, points out in her video, the mob wife aesthetic is a welcome pendulum swing away from what she calls the “clean girl aesthetic”—a minimal, Sofia Richie–esque beauty look and stealth wealth style. It also follows the rise in popularity of girlish aesthetics in general, from coquette to Barbiecore. The mob wife, by comparison, is a little more grown up. It’s right there in the name: She’s a wife! She’s not a girl; she’s a woman. She’s confident in her sexuality. She puts ziti on the table. And she’s well aware of how the world works—and how to bend it to her advantage. Trivieri put it best when she said: “Carmela Soprano walked so you bitches could run.”

“The whole Y2K thing felt a little younger, and I think this is a little bit more mature, sexier, and bold,” Trivieri explained over the phone last week, referencing the recent popularity in low-rise jeans, ballet flats, and going-out tops—the styles that followed the Sopranos premiere in 1999. “Being a mob wife is all about standing on business,” she continued, using another popular TikTok phrase that means, in her eyes, to be “confident and assured in yourself.”

Although there is nothing stealth about the mob wife aesthetic and the quote-unquote waste management wealth it implies, “it’s not about having the most expensive outfit,” Trivieri clarifies. Rather, she says, “It’s an energy, an aura. It’s about being very forward and bold.” It says basta to minimalism, and to status-y beige brands of the moment like the Row and Toteme.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a runway trend, but the mob wife aesthetic is there if you want it: Schiaparelli’s big jewelry and powerful silhouettes, Alaïa’s black leather and bodycon—and as always, Italian designers like Versace, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabbana.

Sarah Jordan Arcuri, the self-declared “Mob Wife Aesthetic CEO,” who goes by @thesweetpaisana on TikTok, shared a video in October in which she broke down the look: all black, as much leather as possible, “your mom’s fur jacket from the ’80s,” gold jewelry, and sunglasses, plus an Italian designer bag. “If you look like you’re going to a funeral, you know you’re doing it right,” she said. To me, Arcuri looks less like Carmela Soprano in this video and more like her husband’s mistress, or “goomar,” Gloria Trillo—and I mean that as the highest compliment.

In addition to fictional characters, Trivieri is also taking notes from real-life women like Kris Jenner, Martha Stewart, and Nicki Minaj, whom she says “give the energy” of a mob wife, despite not being mob wives. (“Don’t take everything so literally,” she advises.) Celebrities like Dua Lipa, Hailey Bieber, and Kendall Jenner have also embodied the look lately with big fur coats, knee-high leather boots, and red lipstick.

The popular Instagram account @sciuraglam, which documents stylish older Italian women, is a source of inspiration for Trivieri as well. (A Sciura is an elderly lady from the city center of Milan.) They remind her of her nonna, she says. “That’s what I aspire to dress like every day. Italian women are always so put together whenever they go out. But they also have fun with patterns, prints, and colors.”

The mob wife aesthetic may offer a nice change of pace, but it’s not for everyone. As any actual mob wife could tell you, one day you’re in, and the next day you’re whacked. Of course, the look is already seeing its fair share of backlash for arguably being appropriative and exclusionary, and, you know, glorifying the whole organized crime thing. Ironically, TikTok users seem to have had it up to here with trends in general. [Gestures emphatically.]

Francis Ford Coppola also has a point: It’s not just about mob wives, but also mob sisters. He wrote in his Instagram caption last week that the more Waspy style of Kay Corleone, played by Diane Keaton in The Godfather, was inspired by that of his real-life wife, Eleanor. Meanwhile, the style of Connie Corleone, who wears all black, big furs, and plenty of jewelry in the film, was inspired by that of his sister, the actor Talia Shire—“a sultry, delightful Italian princess.”

So give it a few more weeks. Maybe by then, we’ll all be dressing like Janice.