Some brands sell candles. Dastaangoi ignites memories.
In this episode of Forward Moves, host Raja Haddad sits down with Amad Mian—co-founder of Dastaangoi, the Dubai-based luxury home fragrance brand turning cultural heritage into scent. What started as free Zoom storytelling events during lockdown has become something far more personal: a fragrance house where jasmine is your grandmother's morning ritual, orange blossoms are Damascus afternoons, and daffodils transport you to Kashmir valleys you've never seen.
Amad didn't start this to sell products. He started it to answer a painful question: how do I make sure my daughter is proud of being Pakistani when I spent years ashamed of it myself? The answer came through scent—the most visceral carrier of memory we have. No added notes to jasmine. No dilution for Western markets. Just stories specific enough to transport you, open enough for you to write yourself into them.
This is about a founder who learned perfumery by researching spice markets as ancient medicine, not just cooking ingredients. Who makes candles with custom wax blends because Gulf homes are bigger and hotter. Who does pop-ups himself because he wants to see people close their eyes and smile—or cry—when they smell home. It's about building something from the region, for the region, without asking permission from global luxury's playbook.
This episode explores:
● Reclaiming identity through scent: Why fragrance became the vehicle for teaching his daughter what he had to learn as an adult
● Research over formula: Starting with landscape, poetry, and lived experience—then building the fragrance
● Authentic vs. appropriated: What it means to create for your community instead of performing it for outsiders
● The open story: Making scents specific enough to transport, loose enough for anyone to project their own memory
● Artist residencies as core: Why bringing creatives together isn't marketing—it's who they are
● Scaling with soul: How to grow globally without losing the pop-up conversations that make people cry
● Amad's story is proof that the most powerful brands aren't polished—they're honest. Dastaangoi shows us that cultural storytelling doesn't need validation from international markets. It just needs courage to say: this is us.
Tune in, subscribe, and join us as we chart the creative journeys shaping the Middle East. Until then—keep moving forward.
