Gap is rereleasing its ‘90s fragrances in 2026, but don’t expect them to smell exactly like the original eaux de toilettes. Before we get into our first impressions of the new scents, we need to talk about what the original scents meant to fragrance lovers in the ‘90s.
Here’s some background for Gen Z: The pop culture moments of that decade had many of us defining and redefining who we were. We took quizzes in magazines to find out which hair color best matched our personalities. (I typically landed on brunette.) We were all trying to decide which Spice Girl we’d be (I was Sporty, sometimes Posh). And the starter Pokémon we chose in the new GameBoy Color games spoke volumes about who we were in 2D and IRL. (With Aries rising, I always picked Charmander.)
In beauty, it was Gap’s fragrances. The apparel brand launched its first four scents in 1994, which formally introduced us to Heaven and Grass. Dream followed in 1995, and Om arrived a year later. A leisurely walk through the mall revealed Dream girls, Heaven fans, the extra-cool Om crowd, and the nature-loving Grass group. My mother wore Grass, and because I often raided her beauty stash, I wore it too. These scents slowly disappeared off Gap shelves, but could still be found in Gap Factory Outlets.
Now, more than three decades after we first met Grass and Heaven, they’re back, along with Dream and a new addition to the lineup, Harmony. Deb Redmond, head of beauty at Gap Inc., recognizes how nostalgic this collection is for so many people, and that it couldn’t be reimagined lightly. “There is definitely an emotional foundation there,” she says. “You’ll recognize that emotional connection in the new eaux de parfums, but the scents definitely have a new modernity to them that I feel is more of what the beauty customer today is really looking for.”
Tasked with bringing these fragrances to 2026 were DSM-Firminich master perfumer Honorine Blanc—who worked on the 1996 Om—and principal perfumer Nicole Mancini. Blanc brought the new Om, plus Dream and newcomer Harmony, to life, while Mancini is behind today’s Heaven and Grass.
The idea of bringing these scents back from the ‘90s was years in the making, says Redmond, but once Gap had these perfumers on board, the formulations took about two years. “We didn’t rush this at all,” she says, adding that the team really prioritized consumer testing. “We put [the fragrances] in front of individuals that are familiar with the scents that we had in the ’90s, as well as the customers of today.” The goal, says Redmond, was to determine, whether someone was an original fan or not: “Was there still that emotional connection?”
Working on these new fragrances, Blanc was very tuned into the notion of nostalgia. “It’s very important today,” she says. “Since 1996, we had Covid, a different war, we now have [better] technology, AI, a smarter consumer—huge changes. This new generation is looking for what was in the ‘90s because there was this comfort. The ’90s is becoming today like the comfort, the safety,” both for people who lived the ‘90s and those who were born years later.
Bringing a beloved line of fragrances from the ‘90s to 2026 isn’t all warm, fuzzy feelings and rainbows, though. Of course, “Some of the original raw materials and methods from the ’90s aren’t used the same way now,” says Blanc. The OG Heaven, for example, used polycyclic musk—the same note behind the clean laundry smells of CKOne and The Body Shop White Musk.
