We’ve lived through Barbiecore and dipped our ballet flats into the ultra-feminine Coquette aesthetic, but there’s a new fashion craze on the scene: the ‘Mob Wife’.
“I hear the ‘mob wife aesthetic’ is making a comeback…” director Francis Ford Coppola penned in an Instagram post last week. Yes, even The Godfather director weighed in on TikTok’s latest viral trend, which is seeing everything from leopard print to faux fur making a garish comeback.
Rewind to the ‘80s and ‘90s when gangster dolls, like Carmella Soprano and Lorraine Bracco, were the unsung heroes of mafia-run family businesses, communities and groups. AKA, the original mob wife.
© HBOIn short, the playful style trend lends itself to elegant, edgy and eccentric styling opportunities. Think heavy gold jewellery and even heavier eyeliner, outlandish fur coats, oversized sunglasses and leather, leather, more leather.
Ever since this trend started dominating my TikTok feed, I immediately turned to the style icons I’ve been writing about on a daily basis for the last three years… the royals.
From the Duchess of Edinburgh’s penchant for patent leather, to Princess Margaret’s unapologetic love of pearls and fur, forget the leading ladies of “The Sopranos,” let me convince you how the royals were the original femme fatales.
Princess Margaret’s gangster doll lifestyle
© John Stillwell – PA ImagesThe original mob wives were born in the 1980s when smoking cigarettes was still considered the epitome of glamour. Princess Margaret’s rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, most recently revived in Netflix’s The Crown, is undeniably mob wife coded.
© Anwar HusseinPrincess Margaret was often seen pairing a silk headscarf with oversized sunglasses, the ultimate combination of accessories to ooze mob wife glamour. The bolder the frame, the bigger the mob wife energy.
Duchess Sophie’s vampy leather heels
© Tim Rooke/ShutterstockHeels are the only acceptable footwear for a mob wife, and bonus points if they’re leather and go over-the-knee.
Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, was serving serious mobster vibes in her vampy all-leather look worn in Surrey last year.
MORE: 7 times Duchess Sophie wore the most amazing leather outfits
Princess Kate’s heavy eyeliner
© ShutterstockPrincess Kate always boasts a glowing complexion, highlighted by her go-to beauty combination of a dewy foundation, rosy blush and softly defined cheek and brow bones.
Up until the late 2010s, however, Kate leaned into far heavier makeup trends, often stepping out with a deep pink, layered blush and several lashings of mascara and eyeliner – the exact, audacious, messy glamour that suits the mob wife aesthetic.
Princess Kate’s mob wife leopard print
© AFPLeopard print – the mob wife’s unofficial uniform – never looked better on the Princess of Wales, who took a walk on the wild side in this garish animal-print shift dress during her first pregnancy with Prince George.
Princess Anne’s bouffant ‘do
© Max Mumby/IndigoPrincess Charlene’s ‘Geddoudahere!’ sunglasses
© Jean CatuffeNothing says ‘mob wife’ quite like cherry red lipstick and a pair of obnoxiously large sunglasses – Princess Charlene of Monaco’s signature look that screams New York ‘old money’, in mobster world, of course.
Crown Princess Mary’s loud leopard print
© Dirk Zengel/dana press/ShutterstockThe Queen’s fabulous faux fur coats
© Pool/Tim Graham Picture LibraryFaux fur is having a major revival thanks to TikTok’s latest style trend. But who was the original trendsetter to shun the use of real fur? Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2019, Her Late Majesty officially declared she would no longer be wearing or purchasing garments that used real animal fur. How mob wife of her to go faux.
