Calvin Klein Eternity (1988 original): fragrance review

Think of 1980s perfumes and think of today: See a difference? A staggering 11.7% ratio of Iso-E Super (a synthetic abstract woody note) ensures that 1988-issued Eternity by the-then-Calvin-Klein-controlled house was on the vanguard of something that would be exploited to full effect several years later. It also justfies why Eternity doesn't exactly smell like Eternity any more, as Iso-E Super concentrations have been toned down in recent perfumery restrictions.
Sophia Grojsman, the renowned perfumer behind this, is no shy violet when coming to streamlining a formula down to a few core accords & ingredients which give a pronounced effect: Tonalide and Galaxolide (both synthetic musks) are also overdosed, and her other best-selling opus, Trésor for Lancôme, contains a huge amount of Galaxolide, accounting for the phenomenal tenacity (Synthetic musks don't budge off for days on end).

Calvin Klein wanted to capture a romantic vibe after the carnal lust of Obsession and its racy advertising, forseeing the 1990s return to the cocoon and the conservative values of family. Thus an iconic fragrance of the 1990s emerged, advertised in serene scenes of a family by the sea, fronted by Chris Turlington (one of the top 5 supermodels of the era). Was the seascape kissing romantic in that it stirred the unconsious of viewers into reminding them of Deborrah Kerr and Burt Lancaster sharing a passionate salty kiss in From Here to Eternity? Possibly. But the execution was much tamer this time, all preppy and "clean", in tune with the AIDS epidemic which necessitated a (public) cleaning up of one's sexual act.
The name was inspired by the ring of the Windsors, which king Edward VIII had offered to Wallis Simpson, and which Calvin had later bought at an auction for his ~then~ wife Kelly Proctor; it stands as a token of timeless promise of love and immortality: "As long as we're together, time can't touch us" the motto went.

The characteristic peppery heart of Calvin Klein Eternity evoking carnations is dusted with powder (heliotrope, musk) and fresh notes (citrus, greens, lily of the valley), making the fragrance fit for summer or winter, as long as you use it with restraint; it's quite potent! But the overall impression is removed from individual notes: Luca Turin calls it a "loud rose" and he's absolutely right: Eternity takes peppery notes reminiscent of spicy flowers (like carnation) and sprinkles them on top of an intensely soapy rose. In short, if you expect something like the retro Bellodgia by Caron, you will be disappointed.
To really feel the rose beneath the carnation however do an experiment: Take rose-affirmed Paris by YSL (also by Grojsman) and spray one on the one hand, the other on the other. You will feel it all right! After all, rose is Grojsman's favourite flower and she manages to amplify its message in almost everything she touches creating that "cleavage" accord for which she's famous, from Trésor for Lancôme (allied with apricot), Bulgari pour Femme, Nude by Bill Blass, and Jaipur for Boucheron to uber-niche S-perfume 100% Love. "Perfumers have signatures," Mrs. Grojsman said. "You can pick up a fragrance and know who the perfumer is by the way certain ingredients are put together. I'm known for floral accords, bottoms and cleavage."
Memorably, one of the lines I best recall involving the fragrance was featured in an American film involving a gynaecologist molester: his preferred scent on his women victims was Eternity; "it smells of clean sheets" was his (valid) explanation. Creepy...



Eternity proved such a popular concept (it's a best-seller in France of all places!) and name that a legion of flankers (Eternity Moment, Eternity Purple Orchid, Eternity Rose Blush, Eternity Summer and some I might be forgetting right now) have emerged over the years, tweaking the formula to serve the zeitgeist. It's still available (and apparently selling well) in department stores under Coty Prestige.

Notes for Calvin Klein Eternity (1988 original)
Top: Freesia, leafy green accord, citrus oils (mandarin), sage, narcissus, lily
Heart: Rose, violet, lily of the valley, carnation, marigold, apricot, peach
Base: Patchouli, sandalwood, heliotrope, musk

Little known facts: fragrance history

I have been keeping these "on ice", so to speak, for some time. They're interesting and fun to know and probably not too practical either, but thought I'd share.



Light Blue: It's the title and colour of attire by which a representative of Cambridge in an athletic tournament goes by, its counterpoint being Dark Blue *for Oxford. It goes back to the boatraces between the two university towns many years ago, specifically the Varsity Match. Something tells me Dolce & Gabanna never thought of that!

"The man who began the Varsity match tradition was Charles Wordsworth of Christ Church college Oxford, who in June 1827 arranged a two-day cricket match against Cambridge at Lords. The first Boat Race between the two universities was in 1829, and was rowed over 2 and a quarter miles between Hambleden Lock and Henley Bridge. The second Boat Race was not until 1836 which was rowed over more than double the distance, from Westminster Bridge upstream to Putney Bridge. It was in this race that one of the Cambridge oarsmen tied a light blue ribbon to the bows of the Cambridge boat (the colours of his school, Eton College). The colour dark blue was then ascribed to Oxford because it is the colour of Christ Church college, and the Oxford crew sported white jerseys with dark blue stripes during the race. These colours have remained over the years and now sportsmen who have represented Oxford in a Varsity match against Cambridge in a Full Blue sport are entitled to wear a dark blue blazer".

~according to Sport.ox.ac.uk



Chamade: Technically thus is called the drumroll that in the Napoleonic wars signalled retreat. Also used by Françoise Sagan in her novel, La Chamade as a sign of erotic surrender ("son coeur bat la chamade"). Interestingly, on top of all that, the name of a quite successful car model by French auto-industry Renault!
Guerlain had chosen a wonderful vehicle for conveying the sweet message of romantic surrender to love.

Listerine: Now known as a deodorising mouthwash and also a series of oral hygiene products, it began its career as a house and hospital general antiseptic in the 1870s! It only re-invented itself as a mouthwash in 1920, through cunning and rather manipulative advertising; even inventing the non-existent medical term halitosis for what is commonly known as bad breath!

Ma Griffe: In French it means both "my signature" (hence a designer's marquee is called one's griffe) and "my talon" (accordingly pictured in advertisements in the 1970s). So basically, Ma Griffe hints at having someone at your clutches: not exactly the prim image we have of it, now, is it?

Eternity: The Calvin Klein scent derives its name from the eternity ring of Mrs.Simpson (which was a gift by the Duke of Windsor) that Calvin bought at an auction for his then wife Kelly Rector. Inside the ring there was a simple inscription: Eternity. Which was the case for the Windsors, but not for the Kleins as they seperated later on.

More fun later on!


*Thanks to Bela for pointing out that the translation for "dark" vs "deep" does denote a difference in shade in this instance.

Pics courtesy of ciao.fr and parfumdepub

Perfume advertising 3: gender play (multimedia clips)

The issue of what differentiates female from male idiosyncrasies in general is complicated enough. In perfume terms the composition of different formulas for the two sexes (roughly floral and oriental for the ladies, woody and citrus for the gentlemen) is a fairly recent phenomenon, dating from the dawn of modern perfumery in the end of the 19th century. Up till then, there was pretty much lots of leeway for men to delve in floral waters of the Victorian era or even the rich civet and musk laden compositions of the 18th century decadence. The issue of how male and female attributes translate in the iconography of perfume though is worth investigating for its many surprising facets.

Here today I decided to delve in some perfume commercials that redefine the role of gender as we know it.
The 70s were the years when it was acceptable for the first time after many long years for a woman to appear in pants. Up till then, emulating a man’s wardrobe was considered outré and not to be encouraged. In upscale restaurants and hotels in the 60s, time of the mini, it was customary to ask ladies in pantsuits to remove the pants and just wear the long jackets as dresses. Katherine Hepburn in her signature slacks was repeatedly asked to use the staff hotel stairways when going to see Spencer Tracy some years prior. In that regard, the first ad for perfume that showcased this new freedom was Charlie by Revlon. Codenamed “Cosmo” while being developed, as this was intended for the young and liberated Cosmopolitan readers, that magazine being full of women’s liberation articles back then besides the tips for better sex; it then got named Charlie from the first name of Charles Revson, owner of Revlon. The face of Charlie was Shelley Hack whom you may remember as part of “Charlie’s Angels” TV series, here with Bobby Short. Watch the clip clicking here

Indeed watching the commercial, Shelley dressed in a shiny satiny ensemble of pants and shirt, with a matching little hat on her short bouncy do, it takes a close up to see that it’s actually a female. The fact that she is thin and with no discernible décolletage makes it even more risqué. As she sprays the perfume on her neck while in the car before getting out at her destination we get a glimpse of what an emancipated woman is like; driving, wearing the pants, getting alone to the place she is invited. There is no need for a man to accompany her. She is the man in her life. So recent commercials compared to that seem to tie women to their traditional roles of either homemaking material (pretty, happy) or dangerous fantasy (aggressive seductresses). But that is as much a societal phenomenon as to warrant a separate article of its own on another venue.

Many years later it was advertising provocateur Calvin Klein who brought homosexuality in the mainstream with his memorable commercials. As an aside when talking about the issue, please note that it is males of such a preference who feature prominently in the ads, not women. This may have to do with more homosexual men being involved in the media in the first place (and we all know the designing world is full of them), but it also has to do with the taboo of female homosexuality in advertising as well. For some reason, women in advertisers’ minds should be seen as dynamic, but not butch, aggressive as they are often depicted in the sexual arena, but not manly. I guess it has to do with the male mindframe being deeply disturbed by the idea that a woman renounces the attributes that make him the center of her universe, even though he may renounce those that make him desirable to her! Egotistical though it may sound, men seem flattered if women are concentrating on them. Homoerotic female images are desirable – and intensely so- only if they entail a man eventually and only if the ladies in question outwardly look very stereotypically feminine. To revert to Calvin Klein though, his commercials exploit the homoerotic ideal to the max. A series of commercials for Obsession as well as Eternity used photographer Herb Ritts as the vehicle for an aesthetic that was distinct in an American way.
To witness, these 4 short clips for Eternity for men from the 80s, featuring the exotic Shana Zadhrick as the female presence in an otherwise male territory, which idolize the male physique, sculpted during long hours at the -then- temple: the gym. The droplets of water on rippled flesh, the eroticism of swimmers’ bathing suits, the movement that is resembling diving. Everything speaks of the promise of a different erotic experience.
Watch the clip clicking here

And then of course we have the cheeky ironic representation of Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier. The theme is reprised in a tongue-in-cheek way (as Gaultier takes himself far less seriously than Klein) and the sailor and his uniform, both a nod to a popular homosexual icon and Jean Paul’s favourite matelot top as well, make their appearance in ads that emanate a playful mockery. Le Male the jus is full of the traditional male note of lavender and yet it is so sweet that it has a candy like tone, like only someone who is totally oblivious to rules of propriety is capable of carrying off. In the following commercial Gaultier not only depicts the sexual deviant of a sailor, but dresses a woman in the sailor uniform -shot from behind, walking in what seems a bar full of such sailors- in a transvestite effort in reverse, having her kiss another male, only to reveal that underneath her clothes she is corseted in the traditional attire of her sex from long ago, to match the torso of his eponymous feminine scent, known as Classique. It is important to note that the ad refers to men and the eternal female. Even openly homosexual men have their prejudices about women I guess, or perhaps they have had strong female icons in their environment shaping their views on the subject, as in Gaultier’s case with his grandma. Watch the clip clicking here

In another Jean Paul Gaultier commercial, this time for Classique only, several models sit on a table talking about l’amour (love), differentiating in attire and image as day and night, one of them being the androgynous Eve Salvail, a Canadian model with a tattoo on her shaven head. The old woman suddenly and briefly morphs into Gaultier himself, as if the designer wants to remind us that some part of his grandmother's spirit which inspired the perfume still lives in him. Whatever, Classique is a very feminine scent. Watch the clip clicking here

While at it, you can witness the difference in perception of what is appropriate and what is not in the iconography of these two similar print ads for Paris by YSL, under artistic direction of Tom Ford. The top one is the US version, nipples covered and the effeminate face of the guy cut from the photo, only the cuff hinting at a ménage a trois. In the European version, shown here, however, such niceties do not cut it and the whole deal is laid bare –pun intended- for readers. Pity Paris perfume which used to be viewed as elegant, it now has earned a reputation for racy.

Last but not least, Calvin Klein again plays the gender bender with his masterful commercial "Altered States" (which reminds me of a William Hurt starring film) for both CKone and CKbe. The diaphanous and black bottles respectively are used in brilliant effect for a morphing computer play that emits a weird and truly wonderful vibe that compels the viewer to watch the clip over and over again. I find it seriously cool in its androgyny despite the eerie factor. The limits between the sexes have never been thinner and the interplay between the two is evinced in the unisex jus of the two perfumes which represent two different moods, but never two different sexes. Watch the clip clicking here The 90s heralded the cult of the unisex, or euphemistically called shared perfumes and the commercials that played upon this were many and varied. In my opinion this is the most memorable and worth watching one. What the future brings is anyone's guess.

Next post will revert to softer, more romantic notions and the discrepancy between image and smell.

Pics from imagesdesparfums.