Some perfume houses are inspired by places they've visited. d'Annam is inspired by places it comes from. The house bottles memories of Vietnam: the food, the cities, the countryside. And then, in a second collection, its love for Japan.
Enchanting Vietnam
The Vietnamese collection is described by the house as a love letter to Vietnam. These are some of our favourites:
- Vietnamese Coffee the iced coffee with condensed milk that most Vietnamese start the day with. Dark-roasted Robusta beans with a caramel-chocolate richness and real bitterness, softened by creamy milk.
- In The Garden comes from the founder's childhood visits to his grandmother's garden in rural Vietnam. Lime trees, jasmine and native plants.
- Da Lat is named after the city in central Vietnam surrounded by pine forests, known for its romance and mild weather. It's a rose scent, but a new kind of rose. The house calls it a love letter.
Memories of Japan
The Japanese collection does something we haven't seen anywhere else. Instead of a description, each scent comes with a haiku.
- Arashiyama is named after the bamboo forest outside Kyoto. Its haiku: "Alone, in silence, the bamboo shoot becomes a bamboo."
- Hinoki Meditation is built around hinoki, the Japanese cypress used in traditional baths. "Inhaling clouds, exhaling clouds, mountaintop pines."
Why we carry d'Annam
A lot of perfume borrows from Asia without really knowing it. d'Annam knows it. The scents are personal, specific and full of small details, and they smell of places rather than of ideas about places.
Where to start
If you love coffee, Vietnamese Coffee. If you want something green and calm, Hinoki Meditation or Arashiyama. All of them come as samples, so you can try a few before choosing.
See the full d'Annam collection, or come by the store at Badstuegade 16 in Aarhus.
