D.S. & Durga

History of the house

D.S. & Durga was founded in 2007 in Brooklyn (United States) by David Seth Moltz and Kavi Moltz. The name pairs the perfumer's initials, D.S., with Durga, the Hindu warrior goddess Kavi adopted as her signature alias. The house started in a small apartment in Bushwick, the Brooklyn neighborhood that was then home to a cluster of independent music, design and craft studios in the late 2000s (Wikipedia EN, Into the Gloss interview, The Creative Independent profile, accessed 2026-05-23).

David Moltz, a musician with a long-standing interest in natural materials, is a self-taught perfumer. He never enrolled at an institutional perfumery school. He built his method through direct experimentation, beginning with hand-mixed scented preparations offered as gifts, which drew enough enthusiastic responses to seed the project. Kavi Moltz, trained as an architect, took on creative direction and visual identity from the first releases, designing bottles, labels and the overall art direction of the house (Mr Porter Journal interview, The Creative Independent, Into the Gloss, accessed 2026-05-23).

The editorial idea of the house was set early: each perfume tells a short story anchored in a place, a scene, a character or a musical reference. This narrative approach, claimed as such by the founders in the specialist press and on the official site, separates D.S. & Durga from the French and British references of niche perfumery. Compositions reach into American landscapes, Anglo-American literature, indie and classic rock, regional flora and reimagined mythologies, building a catalogue that reads more like a short-story collection than a traditional fragrance range.

Early launches established the tone. Cowboy Grass (2008) framed a green aromatic accord modeled on the high plains of the American West. Burning Barbershop (2010) staged a fictional barber-shop fire from the early twentieth century. Bowmakers (2012) evoked the workshop of a violin-bow maker, with rosin, varnish and aged wood. The catalogue grew steadily to several dozen perfumes, complemented by a line of scented candles that received its own critical reception in the international press (Fragrantica designer page, Now Smell This Brooklyn coverage, Basenotes, accessed 2026-05-23).

Across the 2010s, D.S. & Durga moved out of the confidential New York circuit and into curated niche distribution in the United States, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. The international fashion and culture press, including Vogue, T Magazine, Business of Fashion and Into the Gloss, built sustained editorial coverage of the house. In 2022, the London-based investment firm Manzanita Capital, already a shareholder of several niche perfume houses, took a minority position in D.S. & Durga without modifying the creative direction held by the founders (Business of Fashion 2022 coverage, Wikipedia EN, Mr Porter Journal, accessed 2026-05-23).

Notable perfumes

The full D.S. & Durga catalogue is composed by David Seth Moltz, the sole perfumer of the house. The seven compositions below are documented on Fragrantica, Parfumo and Basenotes with consistent attribution and launch year across the three sources.

Cowboy Grass (2008) remains the founding statement of the house, a green herbaceous composition that fixed the American outdoor signature on the catalogue. Burning Barbershop (2010) built one of the most quoted narrative briefs of the era, with talc, hot wood, lavender and singed paper. Bowmakers (2012) opened the woody resinous line of work that later carried Debaser and I Don't Know What. Big Sur After Rain (2020) first appeared as a candle before being scaled to eau de parfum after public demand, a path the house has taken with several of its scented candles (Fragrantica designer page, Parfumo catalogue, Now Smell This, accessed 2026-05-23).

Olfactive signature

D.S. & Durga writes a narrative American niche signature, where each composition functions as a short olfactive story rather than a fragrance derived from a master accord. The catalogue is built perfume by perfume, with a title, a geography and a written brief that frames the wear. This editorial logic takes priority over the construction of vertical product ranges or of a single olfactive saga, and it has defined the identity of the house since the first releases (Now Smell This Brooklyn coverage, Mr Porter Journal, The Creative Independent, accessed 2026-05-23).

Three stylistic axes run through the work. The first is a green and herbaceous axis anchored in American landscapes, illustrated by Cowboy Grass (2008) and Big Sur After Rain (2020). The second is a woody smoky and mineral axis, gathering Burning Barbershop (2010), Bowmakers (2012) and Debaser (2017), where rosin, dry wood and aromatic herbs build the spine of the composition. The third is a floral axis, structured around the eponymous Durga (2017), which places a white tuberose, jasmine and ylang accord at the center of a green frame.

The signature of the house also rests on an artisanal mode of production and on a strong literary apparatus. David Moltz claims a self-taught approach to the craft, without a school certification or an industrial laboratory behind him, and works in small batches inside the Brooklyn workshop. The written brief that accompanies each perfume, on the official site and in press communications, is treated as part of the composition itself, not as a marketing layer added on top.

A narrative American niche perfume house built on self-taught practice, short olfactive stories and a Brooklyn workshop kept at small scale since 2007.

Key characteristics

The house today

D.S. & Durga remains based in Brooklyn (United States), where it keeps its laboratory, its design studio and its headquarters. The founders continue to share the same operating split: David Seth Moltz composes every perfume of the catalogue, while Kavi Moltz directs the visual identity, the bottle design and the editorial language of the house. This dual signature, perfumer and creative director, has not changed since 2007 (D.S. & Durga official site, Wikipedia EN, Business of Fashion, accessed 2026-05-23).

The house broadened its reach during the 2010s through selective international distribution, with a presence in independent niche retailers across North America, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the Middle East and East Asia. Standalone D.S. & Durga boutiques opened in New York and Los Angeles, supporting a retail experience that mirrors the narrative identity of the catalogue. The scented candle line developed in parallel, with several formats that have become entry points into the house for new readers (Mr Porter Journal coverage, Business of Fashion, Into the Gloss, accessed 2026-05-23).

In 2022, the London-based firm Manzanita Capital took a minority position in the house, in line with its portfolio strategy across niche perfumery. The investment financed the continued international expansion of D.S. & Durga without altering the creative model. David Moltz remains the sole perfumer of the catalogue and the founders retain creative control. The house is regularly cited by international fragrance press as one of the most identifiable voices of American niche perfumery in the 2010s and early 2020s, alongside Le Labo and a small group of Brooklyn-based independents.

Frequently asked questions

See also