Heritage
A house, in its own words
Nick Hoang grew up in the Vietnamese countryside, spending formative months each year at his grandmother's house surrounded by lotus blossoms on serene lakes, morning dew on rice paddies, and the sharp scent of lime leaves from her garden. When he relocated to New York, he found himself longing for these familiar smells. The global fragrance landscape felt expansive yet hollow to him, missing what he described as the heart note of his homeland. This absence prompted him to imagine what a sensory memoir of Vietnam might smell like. In 2023, Hoang formalized this vision by founding d'Annam. He partnered with Vietnamese perfumer Anh Ngo and collaborated with IFF, the international fragrance and flavor supplier, to translate his memories into actual formulations. The resulting debut collection, Chapter 1: Enchanting Vietnam, contained nine scents including Vietnamese Coffee, White Rice, Da Lat, and Pho Breakfast. Each fragrance represented a personal interpretation of Vietnamese heritage rather than a literal recreation of place. The brand subsequently developed a second collection inspired by Hoang's travels through Japan, expanding its geographic and cultural scope while maintaining the intimate, narrative-driven approach established in the first collection.
d'Annam operates from the belief that scent carries emotional memory more powerfully than any other sense. The brand views fragrance as a form of autobiography, with each perfume serving as a chapter in a larger story about place, identity, and belonging. Rather than following industry trends or mass-market preferences, d'Annam prioritizes authenticity of experience. The brand asks what it means to capture the feeling of walking through a Vietnamese forest in search of oud, or sitting in a grandmother's kitchen, rather than simply listing ingredients. This approach extends to the gender-neutral positioning of all scents, rejecting the traditional male/female fragrance binary in favor of universal wearability. d'Annam considers itself a cultural interpreter, translating Asian landscapes, foods, and traditions into a vocabulary accessible through smell. The philosophy acknowledges that memories are subjective and imperfect, so each fragrance functions as an impression rather than documentation. This allows the brand creative freedom while maintaining emotional resonance with wearers who recognize similar feelings in their own histories.