Golden Hour In A Bottle: Dries Van Noten’s Havana Gold Heats Up August
A cinematic journey of scent.
There’s something mythic about scent—a way it drags you into a memory you’ve never had. Dries Van Noten knows this and leans in hard with Havana Gold, a perfume that isn’t just wearable but cinematic. It smells like a story: sticky heat, slow jazz, strangers with secrets. The fragrance drops August 1, 2025, and is the latest in a lineup defined by bold contrasts and impossible pairings. This one’s all brass, tobacco, and licorice—raw, decadent, and designed to haunt. It doesn’t want to be liked; it wants to be remembered.
A Night in Havana, Bottled in Brass
Dries Van Noten’s Havana Gold captures the tension between sugar and smoke, translating a sweltering Cuban night into scent. It’s built around the unexpected collision of syrupy licorice and leathery tobacco, conjuring warmth, sensuality, and the ache of nostalgia. The flacon itself is as moody as the juice inside—amber glass fused with patinaed brass, the first in the house to use metal. Perfumer Jordi Fernandez calls it an olfactive snapshot of “community and generosity in an opulent setting.” Cinnamon, benzoin, and clove deepen the pulse of the scent, keeping it sultry and slow. Every inhale feels like an invitation whispered through smoke.
Alchemy, Contradiction, and Craft
“Havana Gold is a surprising alchemy,” Fernandez says, “nostalgic, gourmand licorice merging with the darkest, leathery facets of tobacco.” It opens with a black-licorice flash before grounding into roasted tonka and an earthy tobacco heart. The result is equal parts comforting and provocative—sweet on the surface, feral underneath. Like all Dries Van Noten scents, it’s refillable and ethically sourced, with tonka and benzoin harvested in partnership with local communities. The bottle's design mirrors the fragrance’s mood: half industrial, half ritual object.
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