Scent is a powerful sense, equal to that of sight and sound.
D.S. & Durga taps into your conscious, creating worlds you can return to over and over again – keyholes into known or unknown territories. “Our scents are fragments of half-remembered myths and imaginary landscapes that invite exploration. They are an invisible soundtrack that you can carry on your body throughout the day.” Music, art, nature, and design told aromatically.
If you are not familiar with avant-garde fragrance house D.S. & Durga, you 5 senses are in for a wild ride. Shortly after David and Kavi started dating, they wanted to make scented holiday gifts for their friends. At the forefront of “DIY Brooklyn,” flipping through the pages of old Victorian manuals and fragrance textbooks collected at flea markets, a passion project budded into a business.
Now husband and wife with young children and a booming business based and bottled in Brooklyn, the two have the same do-it-yourself attitude with a few more hands in the mud. David (D.S.) self taught perfumer conceives and constructs every fragrance from conception to completion. Kavi (Durga), architect by trade approaches the form and function of each fragrance. “She builds buildings for our scents, cities for our universe.”
A decade later David and Kavi find themselves creating, collaborating, and calming the chaos. The key to happiness we asked them? Lower your standards. Yes, you read that right. Lower your standards. Give everybody the benefit of the doubt. “It’s not about becoming a better person for other people, to look like a better person. It will just make you happier. Anger hurts you, not anyone else. Create peace inside; you can have as much chaos around you if you can keep centered.”
“Create peace inside; you can have as much chaos around you if you can keep centered.”
To calm the chaos, they’ve introduced their own take on Golden Hour. Five minutes of personal meditation, 5 minutes family meditation, 10 minutes of exercise, one hour of reading. “My dream is that we’re all drinking tea and reading in the same room. And we try to play music the entire time. WQXR is the background of our house.”
