Unlike traditional perfumers, David and Kavi Moltz aren’t looking to follow in the footsteps of fragrance giants. They are, instead, hoping to replicate the success of rock band The Rolling Stones.
When they founded D.S. & Durga in 2008, it was with the idea of infusing it with storytelling often found in song lyrics or intricate guitar chords (David, a musician, serves as perfumer) and packaging the product in sleek, modern bottles (created by Kavi, an architect and designer). Over the past 17 years, that approach won them a loyal fanbase, its growth coinciding with the rise of indie fragrance labels like Le Labo and Byredo.
Now, however, the stakes have changed: In early 2024, Manzanita Capital, the family office of the Fisher family (of Gap Inc. fame), acquired a majority stake in D.S. & Durga for an undisclosed sum (initial investors Monogram Capital also retained their shares). But even as the indie darling is now flush with resources, the Moltzes are committed to preserving what made the brand a cult favourite.
“The Rolling Stones can keep their street cred or their coolness, because that’s who they are, yet they can make something that everyone can enjoy,” said David Moltz. “I’m not saying it’s easy or that I’ll be able to do it, but why not shoot for that?”
The brand’s popularity has long been driven by its unique scents, which the founders call “armchair travel.” Debaser, a bestseller, is described as “the wild shrill of indie rock coming through the college radio station in hot August heat” and has notes of fig, tonka, bergamot and blond woods, while Big Sur Eucalyptus, which is meant to conjure up memories of “deep spicy green groves on the cool, cool California coast,” made with notes of cardamom, cypress and eucalyptus. All its scents are created in-house, as opposed to working with an external nose, which Moltz said allowed for easier translation of inspiration to consumers, likening the label to “a band that writes its own songs.”
That indie band has big goals. The brand is projected to grow its global retail sales to between $40 million to $50 million by year end, according to industry sources. The investment from Manzanita is earmarked for expanding the brand’s retail footprint, supporting international growth, and hiring new talent, the label told The Business of Beauty last year. And the firm has a proven track record in turning niche fragrance labels into household names: Manzanita currently owns French cult-favourite perfume brand Diptyque and previously invested in Byredo which was sold to Spanish beauty conglomerate Puig in 2022 for a rumoured $1 billion.
“We were [until now] being quite subtle about what we do,” said Kavi Moltz, the brand’s co-founder and creative director. “But now we’re really just trying to show it off a lot more and get more people to come into our world.”
Music, Myth and the Mundane
Things were more quaint back in the brand’s early days in the late aughts, said David Moltz, whose first fragrance was a gift for Kavi.
A self-taught perfumer, he viewed the creation process as a natural extension of his music and a unique way to tell stories. The brand relied on close friends, a few of which owned cafes and boutiques in trendy New York neighbourhoods, to carry the label and introduce it to new audiences.
“We didn’t know anything about perfume or business, or the perfume business, but it just took off,” he said.
In 2018, D.S. & Durga had its first big hit in I Don’t Know What, a fragrance enhancer with notes of bergamot and vetiver acetate that is meant to be paired with other scents to give it a sense of je ne sais quoi.
“The process and the end product is art,” he said. “In the same way a CD, a painting, or a dish that you get at an amazing restaurant is art. There is an education that needs to happen to get people to start thinking of it that way.”
With D.S. & Durga, the Moltzes aim to make accessible, everyday luxuries by drawing inspiration from “music, myths and the mundane.” Each launch is accompanied by an elaborate story shared through the brand’s channels. For example, the label’s holiday collection was framed as a murder mystery featuring the I Don’t Know What fragrance as a central character, and five additional scents representing the suspects in the plot. The founders also create playlists to offer consumers a deeper understanding of how their fragrances are crafted, the inspiration behind them, and how they fit into their lives.
By creating an expansive world around their fragrances, they hope to engage consumers before they even make a purchase, said Kavi Moltz.
This year, the duo plans to slow down its launch cadence from six per year (including collaborations) to just two. This shift will allow them to dedicate more time and resources to strengthening their core offerings and hero products — Pistachio, Debaser, and I Don’t Know What — while also creating larger activations to accompany each new launch.
Their latest fragrance, Brown Flowers, which was released in February, boasts notes of dried cedrat, brown orchid and aged musk. The scent is inspired by 1970s music and weekend getaways in Connecticut glasshouses and was dropped alongside eight original songs (in lieu of a curated playlist, a standard offering with its new scents). The brand will also host an activation with Amoeba Music, a record store in Los Angeles, where the store will promote music selections that have inspired the brand.
“This is as big of a story we’ve ever made around a perfume,” said Kavi Moltz. “We were seeing how specific we could get – Who is [the protagonist]? What does she like to do? What is she spending her time doing? How does it relate to perfume?”
The label, which currently offers eau de parfums, candles and body care products, is also expanding its product offering to include colognes inspired by traditional menswear, which will come to market in June.
Going Global
Retail has always been important to D.S. & Durga, said Kavi Moltz, noting her architecture background, but wasn’t something they could embark on until 2015, when the brand entered the now-shuttered Barneys New York.
“In the beginning, putting perfume online was such a challenge to us. We were like, ‘how do you get people to buy or experience something that they can’t smell on a screen?’” she said. The exposure from Barneys led to the Monogram Capital investment (in the “low single digit millions,” according to David Moltz) in 2018; that same year, they opened their first store in Lower Manhattan.
Retail is also a major component of its growth strategy. In December 2024 the brand opened a new store in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighbourhood. The location takes its design inspiration from Ray Kappe, an architect Kavi Moltz studied at university, and features striking striped layers of concrete, warm wooden accents, and a glass façade painted by Leah Tinari, an artist who frequently collaborates with the brand. This location’s design aesthetic is in keeping with the brand’s visual language – industrial elements infused with a warmness to produce a sense of downtown cool.
The label now owns and operates five stores across New York and Los Angeles, and counts Bergdorf Goodman, Australia’s Mecca Beauty, Liberty London and South Korea’s Galleria Department Store as retail partners. D.S. & Durga is also distributed in over 40 markets by third parties, though the brand will soon begin cutting ties with its international distributors and will be entering new markets on its own.
“When it was just us, we would say yes to distributors to start expanding in these places, but we weren’t always doing it the right way, because there’s just no bandwidth for servicing the market with training and press,” said David Moltz.
The brand is now focusing on “one market at a time.” It’ll start with the UK, where the founders travel often for brand activations and client meetings. The duo is expected to open their first non-US store in London in the next few years . In the meantime, they hope to increase their awareness in the US, especially in non-coastal cities such as Austin and Chicago, with targeted social campaigns and community activations. The brand has also hired a new communications firm, The Lede Company, to help spread its message and reach a broader audience.
“For so long, David and I have been in founder startup mode, even though the brand has been in existence for more than 15 years,” said Kavi Moltz. “We’re starting to rely a little bit more on letting people handle things and not insert ourselves in absolutely everything. We’re now spending more time on the creations and our community.”