What the Mob Wife Aesthetic Taught Us About How to Interact with Trends

A few days away from 2024, Tik Tok the creators declared the end of minimalist trends and the beginning of the aesthetic phenomenon of mafia wives. “the clean girl is over, the era of the mafia wives has arrived,” says the videos he proclaimed, announcing the arrival of a new aesthetic style that, in a short time, spread to all corners of the Internet.

If you’re wondering what exactly the “mob wife” aesthetic is, you’re not alone. Although questionable due to its connection to crime, the name suggests that this trend would take advantage of everything that the social imagination and pop culture have associated with romantic couples of gangsters, but with a feeling of lightness. In one of the first videos linked to this trend, influencer Sara Jordan Arcurithe self-proclaimed “mob wife aesthetic CEO” explained how to dress like a mob wife.

“You have to start with an outfit made up entirely of black clothes. […] If it looks like you’re going to a funeral, you’re doing it right. Next, you’ll discover your mother’s old leather jacket from the ’80s. Nothing screams ‘golden era of the mafia’ like a jacket that lived in the golden age of the mafia,” Arcuri said in his video, posted in October 2023, before listing other style essentials such as gold jewelry, sunglasses and designer clothing. bags. In the caption, she wrote, “Yes, this is satire (sort of).”

However, in January, images of characters from movies and television series such as Good friends, the godfatherand the sopranos were circulating online as the perfect representation of the mob wife trend. (It helped, of course, that January marked the 25th anniversary of the sopranosthat drove theories that this trend had been orchestrated by HBO’s marketing team).

Planned or not, the mob wife aesthetic quickly gained traction with explanations, tutorials, and glossy articles on social media platforms and news outlets.

the question is: why has this become a viral phenomenon? After all, the trend simply “embraces an exaggerated version of trends that are not only accepted into the mainstream but, in some cases, even celebrated as the pinnacle of high fashion,” he says. Rebecca Bauman, PhD, associate professor of Italian at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Bauman, who already explored the importance of mafia fashion in pop culture back in 2022. “Fashion houses with roots in southern Italian aesthetics, such as versace and Dolce and Gabbanaand its materials, patterns and silhouettes are the same ones found within the mafia wife aesthetic,” adds Bauman.