FASHION

Dakota Johnson Adds Mob Wife Flare to a Sheer Dress

by Carolyn Twersky

Dakota Johnson arrives at the SNL afterparty
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Micro fashion trends are like ear worms, once you get them in your head, you just can’t get them out. For the entirety of 2023, any time someone stepped out in a sleek, The Row-esque look, a chorus of fashion parrots (us included) squawked “quiet luxury” from the rooftops. And now, with a new year, a new trend is in town, and whenever we spy a celeb in a tight-fitting ensemble topped with a statement jacket, it seems impossible to not immediately clock the look as part of the fast spreading “mob wife” aesthetic. So, when Dakota Johnson attended the Saturday Night Live after party following her hosting gig in an outfit that could have been snatched right out of Adriana La Cerva’s closet, we couldn’t help but cry “mob wife.”

I mean, does this outfit not fit squarely into the mob aesthetic? The sparkly, sheer knit gown with the underwear poking through? The cropped, black fur coat? The tiny bejeweled Jimmy Choo bag and the black pumps? Ginger McKenna called. She wants her look back.

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At that wasn’t even Johnson’s only mob wife-adjacent outfit from the weekend. When the actress took the stage of Studio 8H on Saturday to give her opening monologue, she wore another ensemble that was fit for a night at the Copacabana—a black, wide-leg Tom Ford jumpsuit with a high neck and a cut-out that ran from her collarbone to her large gold belt. All she needed was to throw on a set of fake nails and she could have walked right onto the set of Goodfellas.

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Even when she stepped out casually on the day of the show, she was still embracing the aesthetic in an ankle-length brown fur coat, proving that Johnson may truly be in her mob wife era. The actress’ complete embrace of the look comes at a good time because we really needed a patron saint for it. Every good micro trend has one—Barbiecore has Margot Robbie and quiet luxury has Sofia Richie. So while Johnson seems to have appeared a bit out of left field, the best inspiration always comes from unexpected places, and Johnson may just prove to be the modern-day Carmela Soprano we’ve been waiting for.

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