Vecchi Rossetti by Hilde Soliani Profumi, 2008

I was immediately struck by the similarity of Hilde Soliani Profumi VECCHI ROSSETTI to Bvlgari's first fragrance, POUR FEMME, created by Sophia Grojsman back in 1994. The key links are the violets and the roses, but there is also a glamorouseven theatricalquality to both of these resinous perfumes. In a side-by-side comparison, I find that BVLGARI POUR FEMME is richer and more complex to my nosewhich makes a lot of sense given the vast range of notes present in that composition, as compared to the modest number included in VECCHI ROSSETTI. So I guess that Sophia Grojsman has outshined the competition once again. I'm not one to charge perfumers with plagiarism, and I certainly don't think that a niche perfumer such as Hilde Soliani would consciously copy a famous perfume and then charge more for the so-called knock-off than the original costs, but I do think that Sophia Grojsman has managed to stake so many claims to so many clearly identifiable segments of the grand olfactory map that she represents a force to be reckoned with! She seems to possess a particular form of perfumic genius which is able to identify uncharted territory and make it her own in an iconic perfume against which all others in the same neighborhood (but created later on down the line) are bound to be invariably measured.