Calvin Klein And Cigarettes Are Cool, Again
'90s are so back!
Nothing tastes as good as the nineties feel. An oddly accurate diagnosis of the current cultural mood. What began as a historical drama has effectively opened the attic and allowed an entire era to spill back into view. The renewed fixation on John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy has quickly evolved into something closer to a doctrine, embedding itself so thoroughly in the cultural bloodstream that by now, missing Love Story would require active avoidance.
Ryan Murphy has crafted a visual universe that recreates and mythologizes a decade. With impecable timing too, as the appetite for its minimalism had already been simmering, particularly within fashion.
Carolyn embodies a particular fantasy, that elusive archetype of the fashion publicist whose life appeared to orbit New York, men and cigarette breaks. In other words, every girl’s dream.
So, Calvin, here we go again…
While much of the conversation gravitates toward Carolyn and her wardrobe, she is not the only reason the series feels so magnetic. The real seduction is in the background. The Calvin Klein office, the assistants and publicists in pencil skirts, tailored vests in white, grey and black. Everything so chic one begins to suspect that this uniform may very well define 2026.
What intensifies the effect is that it is not purely fictional. A wave of women who worked in fashion during that era, particularly within Calvin Klein, have begun recounting their experiences on TikTok. Anecdotes and outfits that could easily pass for episodes of Sex And The City, minus the Mr. Big (for all we know) and with better tailoring.
The ‘90s are perpetually at the edge of being fashionable again, and 2026 appears to be their latest return. The more pressing question, however, is whether this is also the year of Calvin Klein.
Apple Martin might have been onto something when she wore her mother’s circa-1996 CK dress a couple months ago, originally worn by Gwyneth Paltrow to the NYC premiere of Emma. Bringing back the minimalist, undone, black attire to 2026 feels kind of right.
In truth, Calvin never stopped giving iconic. And recent campaigns, from the Portrait Series featuring Alexa Chung, Dakota Johnson and Jennie Ruby Jane to brand ambassadors such us Bad Bunny or Rosalia, prove just that.
Its runway collections rarely abandon the codes that made it iconic, a quiet confidence that reads as both corporate and undeniably sexy. Every one of those PR girls could find something to slay at the office in any collection.
Whether this is the result of strategic product placement or simply the most effective unpaid advertising in recent memory is almost irrelevant. If anything, with the series, Calvin Klein is on trend again, and surely it will be the it brand of 2026.
If instinct is anything to go by, now would be the moment to revisit the archives, before everyone else does and the prices are higher than the NYC skylines.
About the cigarettes
Has anyone else noticed a subtle shift in the cultural conversation around smoking? Accuracy aside, whether Love Story captures CBK habits with precision or not, what lingers is the image. And how good those cigarettes look…
Which is curious, considering the broader climate. According to recent Gallup poll, alcohol consumption in the United States has dropped to record lows. Only 54% percent of adults are drinking alcohol. In a sober atmosphere of “clean girls” and Hailey Bieber’s smoothies, health became aspirational and marketable.
Tobacco, too, has been in steady decline. The World Health Organization reports that cigarettes consumption has fallen significantly over the past decade, largely due to sustained public health campaigns and general conscience.
And yet, as “messy chic” infiltrates social feeds and department stores, the ferocity of the ‘90s resurfaces alongside pencil skirts and slip dresses.
Brands understand something we try to ignore, that aesthetics bypass reason. And how convincingly a character can make us crave a damn cigarette.
“Messy chic” reads like a backlash to hyper-curated wellness femininity. The cigarette, the undone hair, the muted palette , they imply effortlessness in a culture obsessed with productivity. It’s anti-optimization cosplay.
the cigarette trend … is actually so sad. just why