I thought I would be a little more gung-ho to start this year but I forgot just how uninspiring January can be. It’s not an exciting new seasonal start like fall which has beautiful weather and all new fashions. It’s freezing cold and snowy in New York which makes everyone want to hunker down at home and do nothing. Luckily, there are some great new series airing on television and streaming online this month which will give us something to watch while we are hibernating. I’ve rounded them up with a few new events, exhibitions, books, and products that should be on your radar which will hopefully make January a little more bearable.

If you do feel like venturing out after things thaw, I highly recommend visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the newly “reopened galleries dedicated to European Paintings from 1300 to 1800 highlight fresh narratives and dialogues among more than 700 works of art from the Museum’s world-famous holdings. The newly reconfigured galleries—which include recently acquired paintings and prestigious loans, as well as select sculptures and decorative art—will showcase the interconnectedness of cultures, materials, and moments across The Met collection”.

The Winter Show is the event that annually opens the new season of events in New York. The show that runs from January 19-29, 2024 at the Park Avenue Armory features 5,000 years of art, antiques, and design. It also includes a few special events that all benefit the East Side House in New York.

If you find yourself in Toronto before April 6, 2024, you should check out Otherworldly: Deborah Turbeville Photographs at The Image Centre. “This exhibition from The Image Centre collection presents more than 40 photographic works spanning the innovative career of American photographer Deborah Turbeville (1932–2013), from her major fashion commissions of the 1970s to the more personal projects of her later years. Widely credited with evolving the editorial genre of fashion photography into an art form, Turbeville de-emphasized the clothed figure in her pioneering compositions, whose often-decaying settings reinforce their dreamlike atmosphere. Experimental techniques such as soft focus, the use of printing papers with varied tones and textures, distressing or tearing of the print, and the application of masking tape or other collage elements contribute to the photographs’ otherworldly aesthetic.”

My favorite “will they or won’t they” show, Miss Scarlet and the Duke, has returned for season four. The episodes about a lady detective in Victorian London who spars (and sparks!) with Scotland Yard Detective Inspector William Wellington, “The Duke”, air on PBS Sunday nights but you can watch all the new episodes on Passport if you make a monthly donation.

Monsieur Spade starring Clive Owen debuted last weekend and I’m not sure what to think yet but I will definitely still be watching since it’s set in France. The premise is, “twenty years after the events of the novel The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade has retired in the small town of Bozouls in southern France; it’s 1963, the war has ended, and in a very short time, so, too, will Spade’s tranquility’.

I have a love/hate relationship with films and television shows from Julien Fellowes. I absolutely loved Gosford Park but I found Downton Abbey to be monotonous and negative. I feel like happy moments are few and far between so it will be interesting to see if Belgravia season two, Belgravia: The Next Chapter, is any less dreary since British writer Helen Edmundson has taken over for this season. The new series jumps twenty-five years into the future and follows the love story of Frederick Trenchard, the third Lord Trenchard, and his love interest, Clara Dunn – a newcomer to London’s high society. Unaware that he is illegitimate, his difficult childhood has left Frederick with major insecurities, challenging his relationship with Clara. You can stream on MGM+ the day each episode airs or watch on tv when it airs on Sunday nights.

Streaming services used to give us three initial episodes and would then doll them out weekly. Now they only deign to give us two as is the case with Death and Other Details on Hulu. They describe all the characters at the beginning but I was still confused about everyone. The premise is, “Imogene Scott finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and becomes the prime suspect in a locked-room murder mystery; to prove her innocence, she must partner with a man she despises, Rufus Cotesworth, the world’s greatest detective.” It’s essentially Benoit Blanc meets Only Murders in the Building. I’m not mad about it but is there not one writer with an original idea on this planet.

The Cristóbal Balenciaga series debuts today on Disney+ in the UK so you can only watch it with a VPN. It’s supposed to air on Hulu in the US later so I will keep you posted when it has a release date. The original drama series stars actor Alberto San Juan plays Cristóbal Balenciaga, the enigmatic and extraordinarily talented designer who defied the social conventions of the time and revolutionized the world of fashion.

I don’t know as much about Expats which is a television series created by Lulu Wang based on the 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee that is set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on January 26, 2024. It stars Nicole Kidman and follows “the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community: where affluence is celebrated, friendships are intense but knowingly temporary, and personal lives, deaths and marriages are played out publicly—then retold with glee”.

During WWII, five miles above the ground and behind enemy lines, eleven men inside a bomber known as a “Flying Fortress” battle unrelenting flocks of German fighters in Master of the Air. The mini series starring Austin Butler, Callum Turner, and Anthony Boyle airs January 26, on Apple TV+.

One of the most anticipated series coming this month is Feud: Capote vs. The Swans coming to FX and Hulu on January 31, 2024. It is the second season of the anthology television series Feud created by Ryan Murphy and the eight-episode season is based on the bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer. The star power in this series is amazing. Naomi Watts stars as Babe Paley, Diane Lane is Slim Keith, Chloë Sevigny is C.Z. Guest, Calista Flockhart is Lee Radziwill, Demi Moore is Ann Woodward, Molly Ringwall is Joanne Carson, Treat Williams is William Paley, and Tom Hollander is Truman Capote. It revolves around the time when Capote betrayed their trust by revealing their secrets in his novel Answered Prayers. It will air on FX first before being able to stream on Hulu.

I posted this book, Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses, in my holiday gift guides but I’m reminding you again that first publication dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld’s glamorous homes, known for their eclectic interiors, ranging from the art deco to the ultramodern will be published on January 23, 2024. I already placed my pre-order and I can’t wait to have all the photos and details of his homes in one place.

Everyone has been posting about the Ezra Klein podcast episode How to Discover Your Own Taste with guest Kyle Chayka this week. I want to listen to it again while giving it my full attention since it has some interesting thoughts on how the same design style end up everywhere. The guest on the show also has a new book that was just published this week, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture which talks about how algorithms shape our culture and and in my words, turn everyone into lemmings.

While I was following award season coverage on Instagram, I watched Emma Stone’s hair stylist Mara Roszak finish off her hair with her own Rōz Haircare products and decided to give them a try. I only bought the styling products so far and love the Santa Lucia Styling Oil which smells amazing. The Willow Glen Treatment Oil that can be used all over your body and also smells lovely. I haven’t used the Milk Hair Serum yet but I saw Mara mix it with the hair oil to smooth Emma’s hair right before she left for an award show so I’m going to try that out the next time I do my hair. All the products are color safe which is very important if you get highlights or color your hair. She just debuted a new Root Lift Spray this week which I also ordered and can’t wait to try. Roz Haircare is also offering you 20% off their website from now until February 11, 2024 at 11:59pm PST with the code HABITUALLYCHIC20.

This is not sponsored. I ordered all the products myself to try before posting. I happened to see that they gave another influencer a discount code to post so I asked if they would give you one too.

I switched to using a lot of Chanel Makeup in fall 2022 and love to try out their new products when they debut. I’ve been using the Ombre Premiere Laque long wear liquid eye shadows in rayon and desert wind since December and love the high shine they add to my eyes. I apply them with my fingers but a brush would probably give you more definition. Some colors are already sold out so you can find more here, here, and here. I’m glad I ordered a few as backup.

Hoping you are staying warm and cozy!

Bon week-end !

XOXO,

HC