Concrete and neon lights, black steel shelves, bottles lined up like the precious objects they are: As I walk into the newly opened store of D.S. & Durga in Soho, it’s not only my nose inhaling the brand’s vision. Exceptionally interesting music is played (something 80s, but not cheesy), cool car fresheners (yes, that’s possible – no tree shapes, but modern illustrations instead) are displayed beside the heavy flacons – it feels more like an art studio than a store of a classic perfume house.
The founder couple David and Kavi Moltz created a label that makes perfumery a multi sensory experience, eyes and ears included. By coincidence, David stumbles into the store while Im checking out the scents – he is enthusiastically telling me about a recent ingredient discovery. A mix of passion and professionalism (Kavi has background in architecture), intuition (David is a self taught-perfumer) and extreme attentiveness makes D.S. Durga’s magnetism, perfectly embodied and presented by the founders.
Since their beginning in 2007, every perfume at D.S. Durga comes with a downloadable playlist underlining its atmosphere – a detail that shows how story telling can work through all senses. Of course, packing is as well composed as the vegan scents (perfume, car scents, body care products and candles included), though the core of each concept remains the aroma.
„The power of scent is equal to that of sight and sound. A great scent is a world you can return to over and over–a keyhole into another realm. You can travel via the mind-nose connection to larger collective spaces.“ is explained on the label’s website.
To dive deeper, I talked with David about his approach on fragrance and his vision.
