Ocula (Feb 2018)
CK One: a shared fragrance. Corporeità e sessualità gender-free
Abstract
The polarization masculine/feminine which, in the 1980s, shaped the representation of sexuality and the body in the discourse of fashion - both in the delimitation of market segments ("Pour homme"/ "Pour femme") and in the semantic positioning of the terms of the category of sexuality - dropped in the 1990s, under the impulse of new proposals that appealed to a new conceptualization of a more inclusive sexuality (in line with the newborn Queer Theory). The advertising campaign for the fragrance Calvin Klein One exemplifies this process; it is hereby analyzed with the aim to provide a paradigmatic example of such a shift in perspective, concerning the themes of sexuality and body representation. The analysis considers several aspects of the campaign and makes a diachronic comparison with other previous advertising campaigns from the same fashion house; thus, the innovation and shift from a separatist and stereotyping paradigm to a more inclusive and neutralizing one are even more highlighted.
