Forget the ‘mob wife’ aesthetic, I’m channeling Dorien Green this winter

Beauty trends come and go, many get recycled but some of them can be fun to play with. And according to TikTok, the “clean girl” aesthetic is out to be replaced by ”mob wife” – with the hashtag #mobwifeaesthetic racking up around 61.9 million views on the platform.

For the uninitiated, “clean girl” beauty relates to minimal makeup, immaculate skin – basically the type of trend only a 15 year old can successfully pull off while the rest of us slavishly layer on copious products in order to achieve the same “effortless” effect. “Mob wife” on the other hand is – as any Sopranos fan might have guessed – all about more is more. Think smoky eyes, fur coats, bold lips, heavy contour and bronzer… where one’s makeup oozes Milan Fashion Week with a side of money laundering. Evening glamour worn all day long, the type of makeup that doesn’t smudge when you spend your days cooking braciole and your nights being interrogated by the FBI.

Edie Falco as Carmella Soprano in the hit show [Missing Credit]

I’m not from New Jersey, nor am I Italian (although I did have an Italian ex and I still miss his mother’s cooking). And while I’m a slavish devotee of mob shows and movies and obsessed with its characters like Adriana La Cerva, Ginger from Casino and Karen in Goodfellas, I think we can look a little closer to home for inspiration. I’m talking Chigwell, the setting of 90s sitcom Birds of a Feather, in which the Essex town essentially served as the forth character, akin to the Yorkshire Moors in Wuthering Heights. Dorian Green has been my beauty icon for many years, one of the few Jewish women in popular culture and her beauty look emulated the women I grew up around in the early 90s. I think she definitely exudes mob wife vibes, with her red lipstick, leopard print, teased hair and pull-no-punches attitude.