Bon Weekend: 31 August 2024
Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies.
An early series on my original Habitually Chic blog was a Friday Bon Weekend post filled with things happening that weekend. In recent years, they morphed into a long monthly New and Noteworthy post. Those will remain but I thought my new Substack was a perfect time to bring back the Bon Weekend post series so you don’t miss anything.
I’m enjoying a quiet long bank holiday weekend in New York right now. I love staying in the city over Labor Day Weekend to get organized and prepared for when everything snaps back to life again on Tuesday. If you happen to be here as well or are visiting for the US Open, there are a few things on the calendar now and in the coming week you might want to check out.
Speaking of the US Open, I need someone new to take over the tournament and change the schedule so late matches begin at 5:00pm instead of 8:00pm or later. I haven’t seen any late matches this week since they are always delayed and some don’t even start until after 11:00pm. I am in bed fast asleep before players even step on the court. It’s extremely disrespectful not only to the players who still have to do press and conditioning work after matches that end in the wee hours of the morning but also to the fans. Many kids have already gone back to school and they certainly can’t attend late matches or even watch them on tv. If everything is about ratings and advertising dollars, aren’t they just hurting themselves when people aren’t staying up until 2:00am to watch? Something definitely needs to change.
Sportico has an article outlining all the late finishing times in recent tennis tournaments.
The Armory Show
The Armory Show, a cornerstone of New York’s cultural landscape since its founding in 1994, brings the world’s leading international contemporary and modern art galleries to New York each year. It runs from September 6-8, 2024 at the Javits Center. I’ll be attending the VIP Preview on September 5th and will post my favorite finds in my Instagram Stories.
The big fall museum exhibitions haven’t opened yet so I suggest going to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and just wandering around until you get lost when it rains on Sunday.
Metrograph upcoming film schedule
I love living uptown but I also wish I lived downtown so it would be more convenient to see films at Metrograph. They have an amazing line up in theater this weekend and well into September. How amazing will it be to see films like A Death in Venice, Pauline at the Beach, Contempt, Belle de Jour, La Collectionneuse, and Basic Instinct, and many more on the big screen?
I love seeing films at small art house cinemas since the audience are true cinephiles who know how to behave in public at a theater. It’s amazing how many people treat the movie theater like their living room and use their phone in the dark. This pales though in comparison to what happened when I went to see Barbie last summer. Someone brought their Chihuahua, a notorious mean breed, to the film and it bit a woman as she was walking by to her seat. It was bad enough that the woman’s husband had to ask if the dog had been vaccinated for rabies and wanted proof. Oof.
Steven Spielberg Film Festival
Film Forum is having a spectacular Steven Spielberg Film Festival through September 12th which includes twenty summer blockbusters. Some of the films you can see in the big screen include Jaws, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and more.
“For more than 50 years, Steven Spielberg has directed movies about every subject under the sun. Sharks, dinosaurs, extraterrestrials both friendly and not, pirates, spies, soldiers and heroes both historical and imaginary. Not many filmmakers can match his range.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times
The Goldman Case
I love French films but it frustrates me to no end that we can’t see films in every country at the same time. It’s something to do with distribution rights but it’s still annoying. The Goldman Case came out in France last year and I’ve been hearing so many good things about the griping courtroom drama set in 1975. It debuts at Film at Lincoln Center on September 6th but tickets aren’t on sale yet.
Industry Season Three on HBO, Sunday nights at 9:00pm
I already wrote about my love of Industry in an earlier post but I want to make sure you are watching this amazing series on HBO. I was an early fan and watched when it debuted during the pandemic in 2020 and season two in 2022. I can honestly say that season three is already better than those two seasons combined. I think they’ve really hit their stride. The show especially excels when it leans into its Britishness and the addition of Kit Harrington and his aristocratic crew have upped the drama and humour with a u.
Sometimes, the American actors have a hard time keeping up with the English actors and the quality of their drama school training. I’d like to see the show lean even more into their British heritage in season four because I can already tell it will be renewed for many seasons to come.
Industry season three will air in the UK on BBC in October for my subscribers across the pond.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt in GQ
George Clooney and Brad Pitt are starring in a new film Wolfs and were interviewed for a fun GQ cover story feature, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are Hollywood’s BFFs. The accompanying photos make 60 look like the new 40 too!
Betty Halbreich, World’s ‘Most Famous Personal Shopper,’ Dies at 96
Did you ever watch the 2013 documentary Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s? If so you might remember the acerbic wit of the top personal shopper at the store, Betty Halbreich. When I received her book, I'll Drink to That: A Life in Style, With a Twist, in 2014, it came with a bottle of vodka. She was a character and stalwart of NYC.
Sadly, Betty passed away last weekend and I urge you to read her obituary Betty Halbreich, World’s ‘Most Famous Personal Shopper,’ Dies at 96.
I didn’t realize that she had written a new book, No One Has Seen It All: Lessons for Living Well from Nearly a Century of Good Taste, that will be released on April 8, 2025. I can’t wait to read it because I’m sure it will be fun and informative.
Betty was in the unique position to dispense useful prescriptions on how to look good and live well at any age. This collection of her writings from the last five years of her life contains her signature firm and frank guidance on relationships, careers, style, etiquette, and keeping house, as well as eloquent reflections on aging, solitude, and modern life. The result is a definitive dispatch from a powerful woman who always held her head up high, inspiring you to do the same.
The Gardens of Venice by Toto Bergamo Rossi
Toto Bergamo Rossi is the unofficial mayor of Venice who knows everyone and everything about the city. He just released a book this week The Gardens of Venice, which “takes readers inside Venice’s most undiscovered and most exclusive green spaces across the city. The gardens of the palazzi that overlook the Grand Canal, along with the more vernacular ones of the lagoon islands, are captured throughout the seasons: the flowering in spring, the opulence of summer, the colors of fall and the frost of winter. Photographer Marco Valmarana’s exquisite images evoke a sense of wanderlust enough to inspire even the most jaded traveler”.
Empresses of Seventh Avenue by Nancy MacDonnell
Also released this week was the book, Empresses of Seventh Avenue: World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion by Nancy MacDonnell which. chronicles the untold story of how the Nazi invasion of France gave rise to the American fashion industry.
Calvin Klein. Ralph Lauren. Donna Karan. Halston. Marc Jacobs. Tom Ford. Michael Kors. Tory Burch. Today, American designers are some of the biggest names in fashion, yet before World War II, they almost always worked anonymously. The industry, then centered on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, had always looked overseas for "inspiration"―a polite phrase for what was often blatant copying―because style, as all the world knew, came from Paris.
But when the Nazis invaded France in 1940, the capital of fashion was cut off from the rest of the world. The story of the chaos and tragedy that followed has been told many times―but how it directly affected American fashion is largely unknown.
Defying the naysayers, New York-based designers, retailers, editors, and photographers met the moment, turning out clothes that were perfectly suited to the American way of life: sophisticated, modern, comfortable, and affordable. By the end of the war, "the American Look" had been firmly established as a fresh, easy elegance that combined function with style. But none of it would have happened without the influence and ingenuity of a small group of women who have largely been lost to history.
Empresses of Seventh Avenue will tell the story of how these extraordinary women put American fashion on the world stage and created the template for modern style―and how the nearly $500 billion American fashion industry, the largest in the world, could not have accrued its power and wealth without their farsightedness and determination.
Rōz Foundation Mask
I bought the entire Rōz hair product line from celebrity hair stylist Mara Roszak after I saw her style Emma Stone’s hair during award season earlier this year. I absolutely love them and and still use them every day. They were kind enough to send me the Rōz Foundation Mask and it’s a great addition to the line, especially for me since I have thick and dry prone hair. I love all her products because they smooth and add shine without weighing my hair down or coating it and this mask does the same.
Rōz have also kindly offered HC subscribers 20% off with the code HABITUALLYCHIC.
Hourglass x Barneys New York Pop Up
We are still bereft that Barneys New York closed in 2019 but they are coming back for a pop up with Hourglass cosmetics from September 5 to October 11 at 14 Prince Street. It will also include a limited edition Hourglass x Barneys New York Ambient Lighting Edit. I hope I can get one when they launch online because I’m sure the pop up will have lines around the block.
Habitually Chic Autumn Spotify Playlist
My Autumn 2024 Spotify Playlist is still a work in progress but I’m letting you know about it now in case you are tired of the Summer 2024 playlist.
You can also find Autumn 2023, Autumn 2022, and September 2021 playlists on my profile for more mellow music.
“Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
For anyone who tries to tell me that fall doesn’t begin until September 22nd, meteorological fall starts on September 1st. You had your brat summer and we watched you post your thirst trap photos from Italy all of July and August. It’s our time to shine now and we will not be thwarted by your bikini beach pics any longer. It’s time for pumpkin spice and everything nice.
If you missed them, I wrote about school inspired preppy fall fashions in Making the Grad on my Substack and rounded up The Best Quilted Jackets, Field Coats, and Barn Jackets Revised for Fall on the original blog.
If you follow me on Instagram, you already know this Chunky Cashmere Sweater is a great alternative to the Ophelia Sweater from The Row. I bought grey and green.
I also wrote about hiring an organizer to help me closet clean out recently and my post, We're Trying to Have a Society Here, went viral which was exciting. I’m glad it resonated with so many people.
One thing you can do to support Substack writers, especially as free subscribers, is to like and comment on posts and notes. Thank you again for all your support and encouragement in this new endeavor!
Bon week-end !
XOXO,
HC
Will definitely be reading Betty Halbreich’s book when it is released. You are the digital Betty of our time. Thank you for your fabulous recommendations, as always xx
My favorite feature you post. Watching Madame Cliquot right now based on your recommendation.