Ok, so at this point I’m going to assume you’ve seen the mob wife trend on TikTok. At least if you’re as TikTok obsessed as I am, you have. It started out with a few creators but quickly surged in popularity when one woman made a TikTok expressing her love for the latest trend.
But where did this come from? Last thing I remember we were all hyped for “vanilla girl January”. I was all ready for the clean girl makeup, the whites and creams, the vanilla-scented body wash. And then one day I open up TikTok and BAM, welcome to the world of the mob wives.
And ok, ok, I’m nothing if not a follower. We’re doing mob wife now? I guess I’m a mob wife then. But let’s break it down. What does being a mob wife mean?
If you’re anything like me and know a thing or two about the women of organized crime (don’t ask, I had a phase in middle school), you might be confused by what you’re seeing on your For You page.
When it comes to clothing, style influencers are drawing from the overdramatized Hollywood representations of mob wives. They say to dress in solid black, preferably with leather pants, heeled boots, and gold jewelry, but the real star of the show: the fur coat. However, real mafia women (called mob molls, not mob wives) didn’t wear the highly stylized black leather and heeled boots. Look up any pictures of Virginia Hill, Stephanie St. Clare, or Smitty White, three famous mob molls, if you want proof. They did, however, wear fur coats — but who didn’t in 1920’s New York?
Point is, we’re not dressing as mob molls, we’re dressing as Hollywood mob wives. Think: Vanessa Harper in McMafia (2018), Sharon Stone in Casino (1995), and Victoria in The Good Long Friday (1980).
Makeup creators are jumping on board too, claiming mob wife makeup includes a super messy and smoked out eyeshadow paired with a bright red lip. I can’t say I’m necessarily a fan of the Y2K grunge look, but paired with the fur coat and the leather, even I can argue that it doesn’t look good.
But looking like a mob wife isn’t enough, you have to act the part too. The persona of a mob wife (according to TikTok at least) is, and pardon my language, a bad*ss b*tch. A mob wife doesn’t care what other people think of her, she doesn’t dwell on the what-ifs, and a mob wife certainly doesn’t bother herself with the petty drama of everyday life. She’s confident, she’s chic, she’s aloof. She walks around with a smug smile, a cocked eyebrow, and a devil-may-care attitude. A mob wife walks around like nothing can touch her and nobody can bother her. Why? Because she has the force of the mob behind her.
And ok, maybe you don’t have an entire mob backing you up and ready to do your bidding, but that’s not the point. It’s all about the attitude — the mindset. You can look the part, but you have to walk the walk.
So if you want to get in on this trend, here’s my advice: buy a fur coat and slap on some red lipstick. But most importantly, be bold. Be confident. Be a mob wife.