Calvin Klein: CK One
The Iconic Unisex Perfume That Defined a Generation
Even though people love to overuse the word “iconic,” in this case it’s perfectly appropriate:
CK One is an iconic fragrance.
I was a freshman in high school when it came out. I lived in a fairly large city with fairly small-town, narrow-minded attitudes. I was the only kid I knew who was into all the Britrock bands I liked. I’d show up and hate school in my elephant flares, tiny band t-shirts and whatever skate sneaker was around. I did not want to be there.
I hadn't gotten into grunge, a little earlier, when that happened (not for lack of trying, but a simple case of it just not being my thing). Instead, I was a girl who wanted to be someone somewhere in between Liam Gallagher (I even had my hair cut like him) and Louise Wener, with a heavy Smiths obsession and a side dish of the Beastie Boys. Me and my British invasion leanings were not considered cool in my city, but rather strange and moody. In return, I didn’t consider most of the “cool people” cool, either. I did want to be Kate Moss, though.
I was dabbling in every subculture outside the mainstream, and to this day I feel like parts of me fit into so many of them. There will always be a special place in my heart for anyone who pushes boundaries and doesn't fit into a cookie cutter shape.
So, CK One, along with a fantastic music collection—courtesy of a much cooler, much older online buddy from a much cooler city—helped transport me and let me escape.
Locally, the only thing my best friend and I did on weekends (or could do) was sit at the mall and people-watch. One time some football jocks from school got in a fight practically on top of us, and got blood all over the precious denim Smiths jacket my grandma had custom made for me. My friend’s mom handwashed it for me in her bathtub, and joked that she almost got high from the stench of CK One emanating from the hot water. I hope that every once in a while, she passes someone in the street wearing it and remembers scrubbing her daughter’s weird friend’s jacket to that smell.
But memories aside…
It’s been a long time, but there is no denying that this is a magnificent citrus scent that has aged amazingly well. Perfumer Alberto Morillas is not considered a master perfumer for nothing…I’m not sure if the people who knock this scent so heavily are just having, like, ageism issues or if they're just kind of following suit to say dismissive things they heard some influencer say.
But the thing is, this scent really doesn’t smell quite like any other—and the world has had a long time to put out a copy. When totally removed of any concepts, it's just a very confident and fresh scent. It’s soapy without smelling common, fresh without being generically “green,” and they did nail the unisex thing. It’s so much like a men’s cologne and also so not.
It’s a definite bergamot scent, but with a really surprising addition of clean, relaxing bubble bath aroma. It makes for a very soft, transparent version of citrus that I can’t say reminds me of any other scent I’ve come across. Perfumery is a very precise art, like cooking or baking, and even when you look at many scents that have the same profile, it isn't guaranteed they'll smell anything alike. As for CK One's profile, it may sound traditional, but it just doesn't have any doppelgangers out there.
I hope to always have a bottle of this around, not only because it’s a fantastic classic fragrance, but to remember the magic of blasting Oasis albums by myself in the living room when my parents went out, wishing I were somewhere much cooler with people who were far more diverse and openminded. I think, subconsciously, that’s what it felt like CK One was promising to let you be a part of, and that’s probably a big reason why it appealed to me so much.
CK One has been so many things: a divisive ad campaign, a designer brand flex, a passing trend, a generation-defining scent. It's been a fragrance for underground indie rebel types and a luxury trinket for 90s rich kids. It’s been a nostalgic novelty thing and even kind of a joke to those who suffer from a lack of individuality. All of this is fine, though, because it really is a situation of “if you get it, you get it.” CK One was always more than a fragrance, and if you look closely, you’ll see that it accomplished its intended concept more perfectly than almost any other scent out there.
