About

D.S & Durga believe in perfume’s ability to conjure unseen worlds.  The power of scent is equal to that of sight and sound.  Artistry is our first priority.

D.S. & Durga is our universe: all that we love in music, art, nature, and design told aromatically.  Our scents are fragments of half-remembered myths and imaginary landscapes that invite one to explore.

All of our creative comes from within.  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 like an architect (the profession she left for ‘fumes).  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 honors the subtle messages of product design.

D.S. & Durga were pioneers in the DIY Brooklyn movement around the turn of the century.  We began by turning things we loved into scents.  At first we handmade scented stories of cowboys, open terrain, Russian novel characters, folksongs, etc., and packed them into hand-stamped boxes in our Bushwick apartment.  We started from scratch, taught ourselves as we went along, and did it our way (more Sid than Sinatra).

By 2009 we 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, we released our flagship line in flask bottles.  We are constantly improving on the vision that began on our tiny Brooklyn table.

We are passionate about transparency; sharing as much as we can think of about the scents.  All of our boxes contain descriptions, notes, stories, and anecdotes about the perfume inside.  Though a perfume can be enjoyed without knowing its name, we believe it enriches the experience to talk about and understand what we are trying to say, why we made something, and what is in it. Like a record, one can listen and dive deeper into the liner notes.

A great scent is a world you can return to over and over -  a keyhole into another realm.  One can travel via the mind to larger collective spaces to mingle with all the other seekers.  Now stop reading and go sniff!