CK One by Calvin Klein

Whether you were taking your first steps before Y2K, or using this in regular rotation in high school—every person that took a breath between it’s launch in 1994 to the stroke of midnight December, 31st 1999 was touched by CK One. It’s popularity hasn’t wavered that much since this sacred decade, but it’s meaning is totally different.

This was the original anti boomer scent—one that represented a dissaffected generation that was beginning to realize their lives wouldn’t look like their parents. It was also the first unisex fragrance to be such a smash hit in the United States. The packaging was minimal and mysterious as fuck. Same for the ads shot by Steven Meisel—have you ever seen someone as bored and chic as Kate Moss? I should be so lucky to look that hot when bored right now. Alas, I look like a puddle on my couch.

We came out of the horrific fruity floral cloud of the early aughts and now genderless fragrances are singing their tune again and anti-boomer sentiments are alive and surging because they’ve fucked us again! Some could say it’s the perfect time to create another generation-defining scent like CK One of yesteryears—I hope the scent is as bold as the marketing this time around.

Notes include bergamot, lemon, mandarin, fresh pineapple, papaya, cardamom, green tree accord; heart notes of florals like violet, rose, lily-of-the-valley; and bottom notes of green tea, oak moss, cedar wood and sandalwood. In real life you will envision yourself smelling like teen spirt—but you’ll kind of just smell pleasant and inoffensive. All good things come to an end.