I am of the considered opinion that the house of Calvin Klein did more for the popularization of perfume than any other company in history. I say this because they arrived on the scene with a clean, streamlined design concept and a series of straightforward, largely linear, unforgettable perfumes to which every later designer launch has been compared in one way or another.
Things have changed considerably chez Calvin Klein since its subsumption under Coty Prestige, what with flanker madness and a long list of ridiculous limited edition releases. EUPHORIA, however, harks back to the origins of this house, with a thick, heavy, tattoo-like identity in yet another unique and sleek bottle design.
Some people may say that Estée Lauder did more than Calvin Klein to bring perfume to the masses. I, however, beg to differ. The reason is simple: the Estée Lauder target market niche has always been middle class American housewives. Calvin Klein aimed much lower and more broadly, to the college-aged cool crowd--young men and women alike--many of whom would eventually grow up to be middle class, middle-aged housewives and their spouses, but in those crucial years of olfactory taste development, they were all wearing Calvin Klein.
There are some exceptions to the rule, no doubt. I have seen reviewers claim that they dislike everything that Calvin Klein ever put out. Nonetheless, many people had their first meaningful encounter with a Calvin Klein perfume precisely because it was so easy to grasp and impossible to forget. EUPHORIA is just such a scent.
Purple floriental woodiness with a slightly masculine-leaning edge makes this composition like nothing else in the classic Calvin Klein line-up and many, many subsequent perfumes launched by other houses have shared these same simple, in some ways blunt features, with the result that it's not possible to wear them without thinking of EUPHORIA.
This staking out of a plot on the grand olfactory map is essential to any perfume aspiring to iconic status. It must really smell different from everything which came before--and EUPHORIA does. Just as in the wake of ANGEL, every sweet patchouli fragrance evokes memories of the first member of the series, EUPHORIA is the touchstone for purple woody florientals, and I admire it for that reason alone, even though I hardly ever wear it.
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