The body as archive: A study of Calvin Klein One/Be ‘Altered States’ perfume campaign (1995) through the Somatheque model

Abstract

This article is presented as a methodological proposal for the field of fashion studies based on the interpretive model Somatheque (2013) of the theorist and activist Paul B. Preciado. Through this theoretical model, which draws lines of feminist post-structuralism and queer phenomenology, this study argues that the enunciation of the body as an archive is divided into four layers of analysis: (1) the biological body as a medical discourse, (2) power practices, (3) body techniques and (4) apparatus of verification. This study will provide a detailed analysis of the CK One advertising campaign called ‘Altered States’, launched by Calvin Klein in 1995. Specifically, it will assess the applicability of the Somatheque model in fashion studies by considering perfume as a central object of study within the fashion system. Thus, the study of this campaign serves as an example that illustrates how perfume not only plays a pivotal role in fashion studies but also acts as a significant element in the shaping, producing and encoding of the body within its context and allows for the exploration of fashion as a cultural and biopolitical practice influenced by privilege, asymmetrical power relations and colonial institutions.