OBSESSED

Carlota Lopez
Feb 23, 2018
2 min read

In my seminars and lectures we are now looking at fragrances and the way they are advertised to the consumers through photos, videos and articles. While doing a bit of research I came across Obsessed by Calvin Klein AND OH MY GOD it warmed my heart.

It was launched in 2017 and the face of the campaign is Kate Moss and Mario Sorrenti.

The composition of the fragrance is concentraded around the note of black vanilla, oriental woody amber, black cardamon and cedar leaves.

The advertisment itself is based on old B&W polaroids from the 90's taken by Mario Sorrenti, her boyfriend back then. Kate Moss looks truly beautiful and inocent and overall very pure and nostalgic. What I love about this photos is that they feel very real, not staged at all and, that is probably because she was intimate with the photographer.

The bottles of the product are very minimalist, either completely transparent or black (if it's the intense scent). I think the brand knows that they don't need to make a work of art out of the bottle because the fragrance itself and the narrative is already a work of art. They probably used such basic containers to match the pictures and what they make the consumer feel.

The ad is so so beautiful! It honestly made me quite emotional and that is a great achievement for a fragrance ad. It is perfection and it gave me the chills, in my opinion, it really reflects the purity of love. I hope one day someone will tell me such delicate words and mean them, because I think everyone aims to have that kind of intimacy.

Obsessed is a reinvention of an iconic fragrance and plays on the evocation of memory through scent. It mixes past with present, genders and memories. It is about desire, being human and in love, time and tension.

In 1993, Kate Moss who was 18, become the fragrance's face, shot by her lover, Mario Sorrenti, who was 20. They were sent away to the Virgin Islands with the purpose of replicate their intimacy and informality of previous personal photos of the couple. There was no photographic/ make- up/ hair team present, neither an art director.

As the legendary campaign with Kate Moss and Mario Sorrenti approaches its 25th anniversary, Obsessed utilizes never before seen polaroids from that time, alongside with a personal statement from Mario Sorrenti to explore the idea of past love.

"She is magical. She is definitly a magical person. And at that time she didn't even knew it. And let me just say it to her. You have such an incredible presence, and power and beauty. I don't think that became aware to her until much later."

It was and still is all about love. Real love.