D.S. & Durga

D.S. & Durga is a Brooklyn-based perfume house founded by David Seth Moltz, a self-taught perfumer, and his wife Kavi Moltz, an architect. The pair started blending in their kitchen in 2007, releasing fragrances inspired by American folk songs, mid-century literature, road-trip landscapes, and obscure botanical references. The house occupies a particular niche in independent perfumery: its compositions read like short stories, often built around a single odd material — pencil shavings, debris from a dunes hike, a Polish vodka cellar — pushed forward without polish. Bottles are sold through Liberty London, Bergdorf Goodman, and a Williamsburg flagship that doubles as a workshop. Releases tend to land on critic best-of lists each year, and the house has helped define what American niche means: literate, eccentric, more interested in narrative than in luxury signalling.