CK One Eau de Toilette

Few fragrances define a decade and then decline to go away, but Calvin Klein CK One Eau de Toilette has managed it, and three decades on it is still one of the most widely worn scents in the world.

The idea behind it was simple and at the time almost confrontational. One bottle, sold to men and women without distinction, built so that nothing in it belonged obviously to either. Lemon, bergamot and mandarin orange open it in a rush, with pineapple and papaya supplying fruit that is sweet but kept thin rather than tropical, and cardamom sitting underneath with a dry, slightly green spice. It is an opening that reads as clean before it reads as anything else. The middle is where the trick happens. Lily of the valley, freesia and violet are present in quantity, and in another composition that combination would have pushed the thing straight into floral territory. Here they are kept watery and transparent, jasmine and rose give them just enough weight to feel like flowers rather than air, orris cools the lot and nutmeg warms it a touch. Nothing is allowed to become the subject.

The base is the reason it works. Musk, cedarwood and sandalwood make a dry, soft floor, green tea runs through it with a bitter clean edge, and oakmoss and amber keep a trace of earth and warmth so the whole thing has somewhere to settle. Alberto Morillas and Harry Fremont composed it in 1994.

As a toilette it is light by design, which is the usual complaint and also the point. Expect two or three hours of real presence and a soft trace after that, and spray accordingly, because this is a fragrance that rewards a generous hand. It suits daytime, heat, offices, travel and almost any age, and it remains the easiest fragrance in the world to recommend to someone who does not know what they like.

Calvin Klein started in New York in 1968, moved into fragrance and became one of the best known American labels of the century. PVH has owned it since 2003 and Coty produces the perfumes under licence as part of its prestige portfolio.