Eric Forrester and Sally Spectra, what a match. If you will ask Stephanie Forrester she will vehemently assure you that it is a match made in Hell. But if Sally is the one you are asking then she will assure you that it's a match made in Heaven. So no matter which way you look at it - the ongoing rivalry between the 2 fashion houses Forrester Creations and Spectra Fashions, made and is making life very interesting for Eric. There is no dull moment where Sally Spectra is concerned.
It all started about 3 decades ago when Adam Alexander, Sally's hubby (now known to the world as Myles Fairchild) disappeared leaving behind nothing but debts, bankrupted business and a little girl named Macy.
In order to survive Sally started to knock off designs belonging to the major fashion houses, mainly Forrester Creations. By doing so Sally became the Forrester's enemy no.1. The mere mention of her name was more then enough to send Stephanie into a fit of uncontrolled anger.
Sally's first documented attempt at stealing Forrester original designs was when she gave Clarke Garisson (who was at the time Kristen's hubby) the money he needed to pay off Margo Lynley in exchange for 6 Forrester Originals.
When this attempt failed because Clarke gave her his own designs instead of Forrester's, Sally decided to change tactics. Instead of designs she will steal the designers themselves. The first Forrester designer to cross the lines was Clarke (what a surprise ;)) after Sally offered him his own label.
Stealing one of Eric's top designers and thus hurting him professionally, wasn't enough for Sally. So she approached Felicia Forrester, Eric's youngest daughter, and offered her own label.
Felicia who was disappointed when Eric refused to include her very modern designs in his collection, signed a contract with Spectra Fashions.
When Eric, who was planning to offer Felicia the same deal, discovered her defection, he was very hurt. But he swallowed his pride, went to spectra and offered Sally $250,000.- to free his daughter from her contract. Sally refused, enjoying her success in hurting Eric both professionally and personally.
Sally had managed 3 times so far to worm her way into Forrester fashion shows. The first time was on the Queen Mary when Sally, with the help of a big contribution to charity, was able to force Stephanie into agreeing to a joint fashion show of Forrester and Spectra.
When as part of the entertainment Eric went on stage to sing, Sally sneaked behind his back on the stage and started to sing a duet, thus forcing Eric to sing with her. If stares could kill then Sally should have droped dead right there and then from the murderous stares she got from the furious Eric.
The second time was when Sally, who has just hired Anthony Armando, an unknown designer, decided to crash Forrester's fashion show which was held as a benefit for the American Film Institute.
To accomplish that Sally conned the actor Charlton Heston, who has organized the benefit into believing that she is Stephanie's aid and thus managing to add Anthony Armando's collection to the Forrester's collection. Eric was furious when he had to share the runway and the applause with Anthony.
The 3rd time was when Sally and her ex Adam (AKA Myles Fairchild) managed to convince the organizer of the AIDS benefit to include Spectra in the Forrester fashion show that was going to be in the benefit.
Eric was furious when he found out that AGAIN he has to share the runway with Spectra. But, as always Sally's timing was excellent and Eric had to give in.
Since at the time Spectra didn't have any collection to speak off, C.J. Garrison persuaded his father Clarke to leave Forrester and return to Spectra.
But Clarke's designs weren't good enough and C.J. decided to save the day AND RUIN Forrester's collection. He almost succeeded by first changing the music and thus creating confusion, and later by getting the show stopper to fall off the model on the stage.
C.J.'s pranks caused a very heated quarrel between Eric and Adam. Eric blamed the sabotages on Adam while Adam accused Eric of deliberately sabotaging his own show stopper in order to humiliate Kimberly (Adam's daughter) who was modeling it.
Eric and Sally were not always fighting each other. They both enjoyed each other company when they found themselves sitting together on the plane to Rotterdham where Thorne and Macy were going to appear in a concert. And when Thorne and Macy were delayed because of Macy's throat Cancer Eric and Sally went on stage and preformed until Macy was ready to sing.
What Eric wasn't aware of, was the fact that at the time he was having so much fun in the concert, back home his designs were again knocked off by Spectra with the help of Mike the security guard who conned Eric into rehiring him
Eric's ignorance about Sally's newest scheme was short lived. Michael Lai spotted Forrester's identifying marks on the sketches her roommate Jasmine (a Spectra designer at the time) was working on, and informed Eric that Sally was ripping him off.
A furious Eric than hatched a plan of his own to beat Sally in her own game. He started romancing Sally hoping that she would feel too guilty to steal his designs.
But dating Eric and falling in love with him, didn't change Sally's determination to show the stolen designs as part of Spectra's collection. So Eric had no choice but to invite Sally to Forrester's fashion show, propose marriage and give her an engagement ring.
Sally, who was on cloud 9, accepted, and with Eric's ring on her finger has rushed to the nearest phone and ordered Saul to pull Eric's designs from Spectra's showing which was held at the same time.
Sally's bubble of happiness was burst by Stephanie (who else ???). After being told by Eric why he had proposed to Sally, the Forrester matriach burst into Sally's office, told her the truth, and smashed the "diamond" engagement ring into glass pieces, smashing also Sally's heart with it.
Of course Sally was devastated but she couldn't stay mad at Eric for long and went on being in love with him, especially after he gently admitted to her that he did it to save his collection.
Realizing that Eric isn't going to be the man with whom she will spend the rest of her life didn't stop Sally from involving herself in his romantic life.
That's why when Lauren Fenmore decided that she wants Eric and Stephanie be damned, Sally enlisted herself into Lauren's camp. In doing so, Sally tried to accomplish 3 goals:
So sally kept pushing Lauren towards Eric and encouraging her to go all the way in her quest to win him back. And when Lauren was ready to throw in the towel, and let Eric marry Stephanie, it was Sally who stopped the wedding with the help of Darla and a little steamy picture of the naked Eric and Lauren in bed
