D.S & Durga believes in perfume’s ability to conjure unseen worlds. This elegant perfume house was established in 2007 by David Moltz and Kavi. Inspired by old-fashioned herbal remedies, the Brooklyn-based pair handcrafts unique unisex fragrances in small batches. Their every possessive creation is made using premium raw materials, such as natural oils and plant extracts. This idiomatic perfume house claimes that artistry is their first priority emphasizing the power of scent is equal to that of sight and sound. The company's founders mentioned that D.S. & Durga is their universe: all that they love in music, art, nature, and design told aromatically. Durga's scents are fragments of half-remembered myths and imaginary landscapes that invite one to explore. All of their creativity comes from within. Currently, the house designs and produces not only refined perfumes lines and body care products but things for the car.
That means D.S. is really the perfumer. He taught himself how to make perfume by immersing himself in all things fragrant. He is passionate about translating musical and literary spaces into scent. His distinct process involves creating accords of lifelike objects, places, characters and weaving them into rich narratives. The sniffer reading the description should be clearly able to sense the ideas within the perfume.
Kavi (aka Durga) designs everything. She approaches her work as an architect (the profession she left for perfumes). Thinking in angles, light, shadow, and texture, Kavi seeks to create clarity in form and function for the houses of the perfumes. With great intention, she honours the subtle messages of product design.
D.S. & Durga were pioneers in the DIY Brooklyn movement around the turn of the century. They began by turning things they loved into scents. At first, developers handmade scented stories of cowboys, open terrain, Russian novel characters, folksongs, etc., and packed them into hand-stamped boxes in their Bushwick apartment.
By 2009 David and Kavi were up and running in a real facility in the Bronx. With the same high standards of quality and a personal eye on all areas of production, they released their flagship line in flask bottles. They are constantly improving on the vision that began on their tiny Brooklyn table.
David and Kavi are passionate about transparency; sharing as much as they can think of about the scents. All of the created boxes contain descriptions, notes, stories, and anecdotes about the perfume inside. Though a perfume can be enjoyed without knowing its name, developers believe it enriches the experience to talk about and understand what they are trying to say, why they made something, and what is in it. Like a record, one can listen and dive deeper into the liner notes.
