D.S. & Durga

D.S. & Durga is an American perfumery brand based in Brooklyn, New York, founded by the married couple David Seth Moltz and Kavi Ahuja Moltz. The two initials in the name come from the founders themselves: "D.S." for David Seth, and "Durga" — David's pet name for Kavi, after the Hindu goddess associated with protection, strength and motherhood. The house is known for narrative fragrances built around music, landscapes and myth, and for marketing that leans toward the offbeat rather than conventional luxury.

The brand began as a home project and grew into a multi-store business with international retail distribution. In 2024 it was acquired by the London-based investment firm Manzanita Capital, which also owns Diptyque and MALIN+GOETZ [5][7]; D.S. & Durga continues to operate and launch new fragrances under that ownership.

David Seth Moltz and Kavi Ahuja Moltz started making perfume informally, giving custom scents to friends as gifts before turning the hobby into a company. According to Galerie Magazine, the couple bought a distiller to make their own citrus oils, and the venture took shape out of their Brooklyn studio. David is a self-taught perfumer and former musician who serves as the brand's "nose"; in trade press he has described himself as a "failed musician" who considers himself more an artist than a scientist. Kavi trained as an architect and moved into design and business leadership, a background the company frames as "building buildings for our scents and cities for our universe."

Sources differ on exactly when the brand started. Wikipedia and Galerie Magazine date the founding to 2008 [5][6], while Cosmetics Business and V Magazine give 2009, with V Magazine tying the launch to the 2009 recession [7][8]. The gap likely reflects the difference between the early hobby phase and the point at which the couple formalised the business.

D.S. & Durga moved from a niche project into wider retail over the 2010s. The brand was first sold at Barneys New York in March 2015 [5], a stocking that helped establish its profile in the broader fragrance market. It later expanded its own footprint with stores in New York and Los Angeles.

Collaborations have been a recurring thread. In 2018 the house released a limited-edition fragrance collection with the band Duran Duran. In 2023 it worked with Armando Cabral on the Mahogany Kora fragrance and with The Carlyle hotel on bath products. A partnership with Todd Snyder produced the fragrance Young Dunes.

The most significant change came in 2024, when Manzanita Capital acquired the brand [5]. V Magazine reported that the founders took the investment to "build something that lasts 100 years."

Since 2024 D.S. & Durga has been owned by Manzanita Capital, a London-based investment firm [5]. Within the same portfolio sit the French fragrance house Diptyque and the skincare and grooming brand MALIN+GOETZ; Cosmetics Business also lists the retailer Space NK among Manzanita's holdings [7]. Under the new ownership the brand has continued to trade independently, with its retail stores, online shop and new launches all remaining active.

The company treats scent as a form of transport. Its stated motto, reported by V Magazine, is "Perfume is Armchair Travel" — the idea that a fragrance can carry the wearer somewhere else without their leaving the room. On its own site the brand puts it more expansively, saying it believes "the power of scent is equal to that of sight and sound" and describing a great perfume as "a keyhole into another realm; an invisible landscape that you can enter and explore any time."

That outlook shapes the products and the marketing alike. Fragrances are built as short stories drawn from music, nature and design, and the house tends to avoid the standard vocabulary of prestige beauty. V Magazine noted that it favours the word "fancy" over "luxury," and steers customers toward scents through a quiz built around playful personas such as "hot wild werewolf," "beach goth" and "chic vampire" [8]. Cosmetics Business characterised this storytelling-led, anti-trend approach as the basis of the brand's "cult" following and described it as "an indie hit with niche scents" [7].

D.S. & Durga's catalogue centres on eau de parfum, alongside candles, bodycare and a line of car fragrances. Individual scents carry vivid, narrative descriptions rather than conventional note pyramids: "Debaser" is cast as "the wild shrill of Indie rock coming through the college radio station in hot August heat," "Cowboy Grass" as a scent "for robbing banks on horseback," and "Radio Bombay" as "ragas radiating in the Bandra heat." The signature "Bowmakers" references 19th-century violin shops, with notes the brand lists as violin varnish, mahogany and amber pine rosin. A higher-priced Gold Label line includes two scents named directly for the founders, "D.S." and "Durga."

On materials, the company states that it uses both natural and synthetic ingredients and follows the safety and environmental regulations of the International Fragrance Association (IFRA), adding that it sources its fragrance materials from companies it describes as being at the forefront of material safety [4]. Its candles, the brand says, are made from soy-vegetable wax with cotton wicks. The Moltzes emphasise that the scents are made in-house and, in the company's words, "always will be."

The brand has been the subject of feature coverage in fragrance and design media. Galerie Magazine profiled it as "Brooklyn's Chicest Perfume Atelier," noting its early stocking at Barneys New York and a partnership with the beauty entrepreneur Linda Rodin. Cosmetics Business described it as a "cult brand" and an "indie hit," framing its storytelling as a deliberate anti-trend strategy [7], while V Magazine's "A Nose for Business" profile traced the founders' path and the 2024 Manzanita Capital investment.

D.S. & Durga remains active. Following the 2024 acquisition by Manzanita Capital [5], it continues to run physical stores in New York and Los Angeles, operate its online shop, and release new fragrances, including the seventies-inspired "Brown Flowers." Its products are also carried by third-party retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman and, internationally, Liberty in London.