The 'Mob Wife' Trend Is Fake
But there's a reason it's become the biggest fashion buzz term of 2024.
Today, Back Row is pleased to publish a guest post from author and podcaster Jo Piazza. Jo writes
on Substack, and her novel The Sicilian Inheritance publishes April 2. I got an early copy and tore right through it – it's a terrific read and already racking up great reviews.Pre-order Jo’s book and DM her the receipt on Instagram and she'll give you a lifetime subscription to her newsletter.
The best way to support authors is by pre-ordering books, ideally from your local indie seller, so I hope you consider putting this on your spring and summer reading list.
In today's issue:
Author Jo Piazza on the appeal of the (fake) #mobwife trend.
The highs and lows of Milan Fashion Week, including Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Versace, and more.
Other Loose Threads, including Margaret Zhang leaving Vogue China, Dune: Part Two red carpet looks, and more.
The ‘Mob Wife’ Trend Is Fake
But there's a reason it's become the biggest fashion buzz term of 2024.
By
The #mobwifeaesthetic isn’t a real trend.
You know what I’m talking about — big hair and red lips, fur and animal prints, bodysuits and pleather. It's the classic Adriana La Cerva look from the Sopranos.
I know mob wife fashion. I’ve spent the past five years working on a novel called The Sicilian Inheritance based on my family’s own mafia lore. My relatives have long believed that my great-great-grandmother Lorenza Marsala was murdered by the mafia back in Sicily and the book is loosely based on that story. I’ve been to Sicily, often described as the epicenter of the Italian mafia, a dozen times in the past two decades. I’ve spent years researching the mafia, both in Italy and in the U.S. I have a pretty good handle on the aesthetic of women connected to organized crime.
About a month ago the Internet erupted over a few viral TikToks that claimed the #cleangirl aesthetic is out and the mob wife era is in. The New York Times described the look as “a louche amalgamation of fur coats, leather and leopard prints that are being presented on the platform as a kind of mafiosa cosplay.”
Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola weighed in and called to mind his character Connie Corleone, the much put-upon daughter of the mob clan, saying the style was that of “a sultry, delightful Italian princess.”
I have seldom, if ever, seen anyone dressing like this in real life who wasn’t already doing so for decades.
I live in Philly (where I was born) so I see plenty of Carmela Sopranos at the Wawa (our local convenience store) in the morning, but they aren’t doing this for TikTok. They’ve been committed to this look since 1987. The other night I went to an Andrea Bocelli concert in South Philly. I saw plenty of big hair and big lashes and skin tight black sequined dresses cut up to the thigh. But again, that definitely wasn’t for social media. It was for Andrea.
Yet there is a reason the "mob wife" trend swiftly captivated the public, drawing coverage from outlets ranging from NPR to Architectural Digest, among dozens of others. The Today show devoted an entire segment to it. Even Anna Wintour has recently been credited with "rock[ing] the 'mob wife' trend" at fashion week since she wore a big fluffy coat — something that has been a signature of hers for decades. Emily Ratajkowski, Blake Lively, and the Kardashians have all recently been written up for doing the same. "Mob wife" has become a casual descriptor in fashion reviews of the ongoing fall 2024 season ("the most mob wife fur you’ll see in Milan," wrote Vogue's Luke Leitch on Phillip Plein).
Search the hashtag in Google and more than 200,000 results appear.
I’m not surprised that it's gotten enough attention to have entered the lexicon. It’s a clicky, visual story. But more than anything, the #mobwifeaesthetic presents a particularly delicious idea. Women want fashion to be fun again. We want it to be unique and exciting. We are sick of being told the ultimate luxury is to make everything in our wardrobes and homes — including our kids' stuff — sad and beige. But more importantly, we are desperate to be seen and heard.
For the past couple of years, social media trends have flattened and dimmed us. The biggest fashion craze of the last couple of years was stealth wealth (or "quiet luxury,” brought to prominence by Succession). Stealth wealth was about understated sweaters, white tees, navy blazers, inconspicuous trousers — all the things you could either buy at an Ann Taylor factory sale for less than a cocktail in Manhattan or for thousands of dollars from Loro Piana.
Other recent trends also seemed designed to soften women. Think about the "clean girl aesthetic" that requires a woman to be a blank slate. Or "prairie chic," those Dôen knockoffs (and some actual Dôen) flowery maxi dresses and skirts that women are meant to wear while frolicking in a field barefoot staring adoringly (and quietly) into the distance. These are dresses meant for leisure.
And let’s not forget the nap dress, the puffy-sleeved fussy gowns that don’t even look ideal for napping. They became A Thing in the media during the pandemic when many of us were stuck at home. To me, the nap dresses’ message was never "get cozy," but to be sleepy instead of ambitious — yet also feminine and domestic.
Well, it’s time we wake up. We want to wake up.
The world has never been an easy place for women, and in many places, it gets harder by the day. Is it any surprise that women want to be loud, bold, and simply seen?
I’m not the first one to call “mob wife” out as a fake trend. Conspiracy theories abound, including one that the marketers behind The Sopranos seeded it just in time for the 25th anniversary of the show. The Sopranos costume designer Juliet Polcsa even shot it down in the Washington Post.
“The stuff that they’re doing doesn’t really have anything to do with my work,” she said.
“I think the biggest thing is, it’s not so much the clothing,” she continued. “It’s more about the attitude. It’s this fierceness. With Carmela, there was a strength and attitude that she had. She was not a wallflower. She was a strong woman. I think that appeals to people.”
And it appeals to women now more than ever. We don’t want to aspire to blend into a colorless void with clean, well-serumed faces and limp, rumpled hair. We don’t want to lay down in our nap dresses. We're tired of trying to look muted by design.
We want to be seen.
Pre-order The Sicilian Inheritance and follow
on Substack for more brilliant analysis of influencer culture.Loose Threads from Milan Fashion Week
By Amy Odell
Mattheiu Blazy’s fall 2024 Bottega Veneta collection is drawing plenty of praise. The man is certainly talented — his collection looked like his collection, whereas a lot of the looks we saw in Milan could have appeared on many brands’ runways — but I’ll come out and say it:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Back Row to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.