Drea de Matteo is a Hollywood ‘Mob Wife’ fashion icon 25 years after ‘The Sopranos,’ still owns character’s coveted clothes

9 months ago 44
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She’s still got it.

At the same time “The Sopranos” celebrates its 25th anniversary, the show’s Drea de Matteo has wound up on the mood boards of Hollywood’s hottest stylists.

The “Mob Wife Aesthetic” is fashion’s hottest trend, captivating young stars from Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift to Kylie and Kendall Jenner.

“My DMs, my f–king text messages,” were blowing up, De Matteo — who’d been recently spending time in Switzerland unaware of the trend that made the cover of The Post last week — told us. “Every single publication has wanted a phone call, a quote,” on mob wife fashion.

She legendarily played Adriana La Cerva, the long-suffering girlfriend of Michael Imperioli’s Christopher Moltisanti, on the series, and rocked a number of iconic looks on camera — some of which she kept, and had even been thinking of selling off well before the gangster moll look was in.

De Matteo considered selling off her famed tiger suit. Instagram/dreadematteo

Just back from Europe, De Matteo recalled to us that “Sopranos” costume stylist Juliet Polcsa, “brought me a box of the clothing on the last day,” she filmed the show, including an epic tiger print cat suit.

“I have what I died in,” she added of the outfits Polcsa gifted her, as well as the sexy getup she wore on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2001 as shot by famed photographer Mark Seliger.

She also has some “snakeskin pants that were pretty famous,” as well as various pieces of “trashy lingerie,” plus a ring she helped create for the show.

The star joined OnlyFans last year. DREA DE MATTEO / Instagram

Most of her “Sopranos” memorabilia, including the show’s scripts, was lost in a 2015 fire at the East Village apartment building where she lived for 22 years.

Luckily, Adriana’s hot clothes were not lost in the blaze.

“When I found it, I couldn’t believe I had it,” she told us. “A lot of my other stuff burned in a fire in New York City… I found the other stuff in my Hamptons house, all of [Adriana’s] underwear, her bras, her shoes.”

On “The Sopranos,” she famously played Adriana La Cerva. HBO

“Of course I sold some of her underwear on OnlyFans… people wanted it,” the star, 52, candidly says with a laugh.

She joined the racy social media platform last year in part to make money after her film and TV career took a hit because she refused to get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That was when she began thinking about auctioning off the tiger print cat suit.

The star says she also has the clothes from her final scene on the HBO hit. HBO

“The bottom line is I lost everything in the pandemic,” she says. “The respect of my peers, my agent — everybody dropped me, without even a phone call. I realized what playground I’ve been playing in.”

“I figured I’d do something for myself and my children,” she says of the potential sale. “People said, ‘you have to say it’s for a charity.’ Do I?”

It has been reported she only made $500 per episode in her first year of the HBO smash before her salary went up, and she’s said, “I didn’t spend enough time on the show to really make money.”

Drea de Matteo says her style off-screen doesn’t follow the newly popular mob wife craze. Instagram / @dreadematteo

While she’s still persona non grata in the industry, she says, because of the vaccine controversy, the stunning star’s OnlyFans account has helped put her in a less precarious financial position. “I feel proud that I stood by my convictions,” she says.

The cat suit — and the other threads — are still in her closet for now.

She’s also launching a hip new streetwear line, called ULTRAFREE, next month.

She also starred in “Sons of Anarchy.” Instagram/dreadematteo

“It’s about making freedom cool again,” the star says of the apparel line she has developed with her partner, Robbie Stabler, drummer of the band All Them Witches.

The line is inspired by ’80s style, and includes, “sweatshirts, sweatpants, big-ass logos,” she says.

Off-screen, her style isn’t exactly of the mob variety.

“I dress like a tomboy,” she says. “All of that clothing from ‘The Sopranos’ was all Juliet, and she loved dressing me. I was her doll… the sluttier the better,” she jokes of Adriana’s risque looks.

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