VERVEMAGAZINE.IN 103W
alking down the
leafy streets of
Bedford-Stuyvesant
in Brooklyn, en
route to meet the
founders and creative heads of the
fragrance brand D. S. & Durga (DSD), I am
struck anew by how this city thrives on its
contrasts. Not so long ago, Bed-Stuy was
a rather far-flung neighbourhood with
a slightly menacing edge and now, with
its beautiful brownstones and planted
front porches, it is the typical scene of
gentrification. This is what NYC is about,
the gritty with the pretty, the rough
with the smooth, and this contradiction
is exactly what has allowed the drive,
ambitions and big ideas to blossom
for couple Kavi Ahuja Moltz and David
Moltz. They have created one of the
biggest fragrance brands in New York
(actually, the USA) and describe their
work in purely poetic terms...as aromatic
landscapes evoking stories, fragments of
music, literature, art and moments past
while painting a picture through scent.
For creatives, so much of what we do is
reflected in our daily lives; the details that
fill a home or a studio, or our notebooks...
and entering the home of Kavi and David
feels very much like entering the world
of DSD. Light and space, their children’s
drawings over the fireplace, crystals
and books piled on tables, candles and
attar in cut-glass bottles, sculptures and
tapestries and the soothing sounds of
Billie Holiday set the tone. All the various
details make up the whole, but each one
is its own story.
First, the technicalities. Kavi, who
is Indian, was born and brought up in
New Jersey by two doctors who met at
medical school in Pune, fell in love and
moved to New York to set up a clinic in
the Bronx, where they practise to this day.
She trained as an architect, and much of
that training and cross-disciplinary ease
is evident in the packaging and branding
that she designs for DSD. David is from
Swampscott, a small town north-east of
Boston. He went to film school, became
a musician and then translated his talent
for storytelling and mood weaving into
the successful launch of the fragrances.
They met on the street outside a bar
in the East Village in 2007 and fell in
love (all good stories are love stories).
They bonded over their mutual love
for herbal manuals in used bookstores,
tattoos, mythology, music, Russian
literature and poetry. It was a moment
in time when it seemed like everyone
in NYC was building something new,
creating their own worlds. This rampant
feeling of possibility manifested itself
in the origin story of DSD that samewinter, when David’s much-loved home-
made concoctions for his friends led
Kavi to realise the power of stories
told through scent. (The ‘DS’ stands for
David Seth, Seth being his middle name,
and ‘Durga’ is David’s nickname for Kavi
— it is not a direct reference to the
goddess, but a name taken from Pather
Panchali (1955) by Satyajit Ray. She is
the sister of the film’s main character,
Apu). Since DSD is a reflection of the
couple, the influence of Indian culture
comes through loud and clear. For Kavi,
India is the motherland, and she has
been going there each year since she
was a baby (her parents’ determination
to make sure their US-born children
were solidly connected to their home
country). David, who has been an avid
follower of Paramahansa Yogananda
since before they met, is also deeply
affected by Indian culture.
You can call it serendipity — the
odds of these two people, who share
similar interests, aesthetics and passions,
meeting randomly — but it would be
more fitting to call it the magic of New
York, where something like that could
spark and bloom, transforming into a
partnership and a business that does not
follow convention.
Our conversation turns to their brand,
inspirations, design ethos and tattoos....MARTIN SCOTT POWELLRIGHT: KAVI AHUJA MOLTZ
AND DAVID MOLTZ