The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
On the morning of Erin and Sara Foster’s Glossy 50 interview, “Nobody Wants This,” the Netflix show they created and produce and Erin writes, received a Golden Globe nomination for best TV musical or comedy, for the second year in a row. The day prior, the sisters celebrated five years of Favorite Daughter, the contemporary fashion brand they started with Centric Brands, three days after which they opened the brand’s second store — on NYC’s Madison Avenue — to a packed house of fans, The same week, they took home the Footwear News’s Launch of the Year Award for their Favorite Daughter footwear brand, launched with Caleres months prior.
It’s safe to say Erin and Sara Foster are finally “getting their flowers,” an expression often used by Sara, as known by their weekly “World’s First Podcast” listeners — who, according to the sisters, also tend to be Favorite Daughter shoppers and “Nobody Wants This” watchers. The World’s First Podcast” joined the Dear Media network in January. The sisters are also partners of venture fund Oversubscribed Ventures. Erin and Sara, whose father is music producer David Foster, spent their early careers working the Hollywood circuit, in writing or acting jobs.
Out of all their recent accomplishments, the sisters seem to regard the success of Favorite Daughter as the most unexpected — in part, because they’re “not fashion girls,” according to Sara. Indeed, regardless of founder or fashion savvy, the brand’s growth has been extraordinary: Its e-commerce sales grew 60% in 2025, and the company is projecting $150 million in retail sales in 2026. Favorite Daughter is sold in major retailers, from Saks and Nordstrom to Revolve, and it secured 800 new specialty store partners in the last 18 months — it has showrooms in Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago, in addition to its offices in New York and L.A., and its sales are currently split 55% DTC and 45% wholesale. More owned stores are on the way, starting with a Nashville location — stores No. 4, 5 and 6 are likely to open in the next two years, Sara said.
Handbags are also coming soon, building on the brand’s successful accessories, including shoes and belts. “We could be a belt company,” Foster told Glossy, referencing the high demand for the brand’s competitively priced leather belts. The brand also has a strong denim category, and suits are the “biggest part” of the business, said Jennifer Hawkins, evp and division head of Favorite Daughter at Centric Brands.
“Everyone [on the team] has different things that we’re proud of and get excited about,” said Erin, reflecting on the brand’s successful year. “Sara gets excited about the numbers. But I get excited about the brand’s quality and advances, and how it continues to grow and be at the center of the conversation, and certain people [wearing the brand].”
Those people have included plenty of “fashion girls,” including Chanel ambassador Kristen Stewart, who stepped out in NYC wearing a full Favorite Daughter look on December 1. Sara also name-checked brand fans Lauren Santo Domingo and Dasha Niarchos.
What’s more, the brand made several appearances on “Nobody Wants This” Season 2 this year and on red carpets, including via a custom dress worn by Erin to the 2025 Emmy Awards.
Still, “the [Morgan] dress did not sell out; nobody was buying it,” Sara said, regarding the impact of a Favorite Daughter dress being worn in the latest “Nobody Wants This” season finale. “That’s not how the consumer works anymore — Kim Kardashian could post your thing, and it could sit on your shelves.”
But the Morgan dress did sell out when Sara posted an Instagram video of herself wearing the style on her own account. “Our video content crushes for us,” said Sara. That statement was confirmed by Hawins, who added that the brand has “unlocked” the power of video content, with posts by Erin, Sara and their sister Jordan Foster, who is Favorite Daughter’s style director, consistently selling out styles. The brand plans to test livestreaming in the coming months, she said.
“We have such an emotional attachment to the brand, and so we share that, and then it becomes emotional for our customers,” Erin said.
The sisters’ relationship with everyday customers is the brand’s true growth engine. “Erin will sit and DM fans,” Sara said. “And, when it came to opening the [Madison Avenue] store, it wasn’t about friends and family, and making it very ‘VIP.’ We wanted our customers there and to endear ourselves to the neighborhood.”
As described by Erin, the Favorite Daughter customer is “similar to us, in that she wants to look put-together and wear an outfit that her friends covet and that is a conversation starter, and to have great options to wear to a dinner party and to look cool at work. But she is not able to, or isn’t interested in, spending thousands of dollars on an outfit.” Most Favorite Daughter dresses, for example, range from $300-$350. Also, like the sisters, many customers are entrepreneurial, Sara added.
Centric Brands, which also owns Hervé Léger and Joe’s Jeans, among others, first took notice of the sisters when their collaborative product with the brand Suburban Riot — a T-shirt splashed with the phrase “Favorite Daughter” — took off, driving $2 million in sales. Shortly after solidifying the Favorite Daughter partnership, Covid hit, allowing the sisters to give the brand their full attention, setting the tone for their hands-on approach to the business, which includes attending fittings.
It has been reported that Erin and Sara are on a quest to build the next $1 billion brand. But for now, focuses include maintaining growth, building up the Nordstrom business and expanding to more categories.
“[The customer] really is looking to us to tell her what to wear, what to put on her face and what to put on her skin — the makeup, the clothes, the shoes, the handbags,” Sara said. “We’re only 5 years old, but I think it would make sense for us to [eventually] be the one-stop shop for all of her needs.”
