Kat y Young: 1990s perfume
Scent afforded me a unique style code
PERFUME HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF MY IDENTITY, AND NO wonder. As a 16-year-old student, a chequered uniform branded me the same as my peers, so scent afforded me a kind of unique style code. An eau de toilette’s invisible nature allowed notes to waft through the halls of my school, unlike lip balms or blush, which were strictly contraband. And as a young woman, although I still wanted to be like everyone else, perfume seemed a wonderfully safe way to explore my own taste and identity (within reason).
The Nineties was a decade for big fragrances. The Eighties were bursting with blousy florals, but Calvin Klein, Paco Rabanne and Mugler updated the smell of the decade with aquatic, citrus and gourmand notes. Whether it was due to the ad campaigns on buses featuring the kind of people I wanted to hang out with, or the fresh sea of notes that depicted a cool new kind of androgyny, I couldn’t get enough of the stuff.
And I still can’t. Nothing comes close to the casual freshness of the CK One I have on my bathroom shelf, paired best with blue jeans and a crisp white tee. Meanwhile, Calvin Klein’s super-sexy Obsession, with its sultry incense notes, still feels like one of the naughtiest scents I own. But I suspect I adore both because, now, each spritz comes with years of memories.
Blame 15 years in uniform, a near-six-foot frame that rarely fitted high-street clothes, or wanting to be like everyone else, but I’ve always trodden the fashion line with caution. Now in my forties, I wait for the seasonal diktat of fashion editors for advice on how to dress. But perfume I’ll run wild with. I love the freedom it gives me, unashamed of the notes I choose if they help me feel like the woman I want to be, even if it’s the shy schoolgirl I was in 1992.