June 11, 2019

K&Co Brings the Scent of Success to Cult Perfumery D.S. & Durga’s NYC Flagship

Acrylic-clad shelving behind a chandelier by Entler Studio. Photography by David Mitchell.

Cowboy Grass, Radio Bombay, El Cosmico. For the uninitiated, those are products from D.S. & Durga, the cult perfumery founded in 2009 by David Seth Moltz and his wife, architect Kavi Ahuja, on the idea that scents have the ability to conjure unseen worlds. A stand-alone retail outlet for the brand had also gone unseen. But that changed this winter, with the opening of a 600-square-foot flagship on a high-profile corner in down­town New York. To help conceive the space, Kavi looked to high-school classmate, designer and K&Co founder Krista Ninivaggi, who responded with a gallery-esque, experiential environment. The former is seen in the display island and cash-wrap, both rectilinear volumes of board-formed concrete; the latter comes from what she calls the “Synesthesia Wall,” where 10 narrow, vertical slots are fitted with LED tape offering thousands color options to evoke different customer emotions.

At D.S. & Durga in New York by K&Co, perfumes are displayed on an island of board-formed concrete. Photography by David Mitchell.
Wall slots fitted with color-changing LED tape. Photography by David Mitchell.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE. Photography by David Mitchell.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE. Photography by David Mitchell.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE. Photography by David Mitchell.

> See more from the May 2019 issue of Interior Design

Recent Projects