Inside D.S. & Durga’s new Los Angeles retailer, impressed by Ray Kappe’s Sixties California residence

D.S. & Durga’s personalised on-line quiz, which aids to find a scent from the cult American fragrance model, informs me I’m a ‘seaside goth’. (The multiple-choice questionnaire asks if I choose ‘Renaissance or Bauhaus’; ‘Marley or the Stones’; ‘tea, or espresso’, amongst different issues).

This evaluation feels right. I moved to LA for the solar and the sand however one way or the other reside in Echo Park – a world away from the ocean by the town’s requirements. And on the day I meet D.S. & Durga’s co-founder Kavi Moltz – the ‘Durga’ to David Moltz, the model’s, ‘D.S.’ – at its second Los Angeles location in Silver Lake which opened this month (December 2024), I’m dressed all in black, as is she. ‘I advised David it’s humorous he didn’t formulate the quiz outcomes for ‘seaside goth’ round me,’ she says. ‘However I by no means get it, as a result of I select tea over espresso.’

Inside D.S. & Durga’s new Silver Lake retailer, impressed by Ray Kappe’s Sixties Californian residence

D.S & Durga was based by the husband and spouse duo in 2008, turning into recognized for its distinctive and immersive fragrances, similar to ‘Pistachio’, ‘Burning Barbershop’ and ‘Cowboy Grass’, every created within the model’s Brooklyn-based studio. It was a decade earlier than its bodily presence expanded past these partitions. ‘Retail was all the time a part of our imaginative and prescient,’ says Kavi Moltz. ‘As a former architect, I used to be all the time interested by utilizing these two loves of mine – bodily area and fragrance.’

After New York, California was all the time going to be D.S. & Durga’s second residence, with the state offering a relentless supply of inspiration. Its hottest candle, ‘Large Sur After Rain’, a eucalyptus leaf and moist wood-based tribute to the place Kavi and David commonly vacation, was additionally not too long ago translated right into a fragrance, ‘Large Sur Eucalyptus’. Silver Lake was Kavi and David’s first alternative for a retail location within the metropolis, however that they had hassle discovering someplace that labored for his or her imaginative and prescient. So final summer time (2023), they unveiled a debut West Coast boutique in Venice. Designed by Woods Bagot, it pays tribute to modernist architect John Lautner, while honouring its beach-side locale with the earthier, sandy tones of plaster and wooden.

The Silver Lake retailer, additionally by Woods Bagot, takes an analogous method, with uniquely Californian components. The usage of an attractive, warm-toned wooden references Kavi Moltz’ time learning structure in LA, at a college based by famend architect Ray Kappe. ‘He invited a number of college students to view his home [in the Pacific Palisades] and it had a lot of this dreamy California, honey pine-coloured wooden. It’s the most stunning home you’ll ever see – precisely what you’d consider while you consider a high-design and the California hippie motion.’

A hand-poured concrete remedy, which creates tonal, striped layers, is one other signature characteristic (included in each retailer besides D.S. & Durga’s first) and might be seen on the money wrap. Behind the register is the ‘lab wall’, nodding to David’s Brooklyn fragrance lab. There are black lacquered surfaces, programmable colored lights to match the vibe of every highlighted fragrance, plus clear acrylic spiked panels. Artist Leah Tinari, who commonly collaborates with D.S. & Durga, flew in from New York to hand-paint the shop’s glass entrance.

Relating to fragrance, some folks persist with a signature scent – or fashion – whereas others experiment. Kavi virtually solely wears ‘Durga’, the scent David created for her; he alters fragrances virtually day by day, to offset the climate. ‘Usually, folks like a heavier, hotter, spicier, earthier scent within the winter, and one thing extra contemporary, aquatic, citrusy, beachy, spring, and floral in spring and summer time,’ Kavi says. ‘David usually does the other and wears one thing like ‘Italian Citrus’ in February to really feel as if you’re brightening up a winter’s day. Or for those who’re dressed to the nines, however it’s June, possibly you placed on one thing just a little heavier to make the temper just a little extra severe so it doesn’t simply really feel like a seaside day.’

Scent layering is intrinsic to the model. Its best-selling fragrance, ‘I Don’t Know What’, is a perfume enhancer that blends simply with others. ‘In fragrance, there are prime notes, coronary heart notes, and base notes,’ Kavi explains. ‘David says that ‘I Don’t Know What’ has no coronary heart; it’s just like the construction of a fragrance with out the substance within the center, so you’ll be able to put on some other with it. It’s one we predict everybody ought to have of their fragrance wardrobe.’ To encourage layering amongst its prospects, the model not too long ago created a ‘Homicide Thriller Set’, which comes with 5 completely different mini perfumes – which Kavi and David describe as ‘characters’ – all of which embrace a contact of ‘I Don’t Know What’ of their profiles.

‘Fragrance is Armchair Journey,’ reads D.S. & Durga’s tagline. Every scent from the model might be related to a spot, a playlist or piece of music, a spectrum of color and even sure instances of the day. Everybody who works at one among its shops is personally educated by David, to supply a retail expertise in step with its storytelling, to allow them to discover a match for anybody who walks inside. ‘Our final objective is that somebody is available in and inside this sea of bottles that look comparable, they’ll discover a connection to one thing,’ he says.