Style & Living

The Hallmark Channel is known for its “happily ever after” movies that are easily digested (like a spoonful of honey) and terminally predictable. I have been a fan of their romantic movies for 10 years, knowing what the plot always entails. Boy meets girl, they have some relationship issues, and the last five minutes of each two-hour movie is the segment where the boy and girl work it out! If only real life could be so straightforward and easy. The Hallmark Channel goes into full gear with their holiday season of all day, everyday movies in the month of December.

It’s sad enough that retail stores are closing faster than Amazon Prime service delivers its packages, but my personal happy place closed its doors this week. The Manolo Blahnik flagship boutique on West 54th Street ended. You could almost hear Carrie Bradshaw sobbing. Manolo Blahnik’s stilettos shot to fame after the premiere of HBO’s Sex and the City in 1998.

If you are a Shtisel fan, you can’t help but recognize the main character of “Kiva” in the real-life Zalman Glauber. However, if you are among the random few who didn’t binge watch the show on Netflix, let me familiarize you with the plot. The TV series is a melodrama surrounding a chasidish family living in B’nei Brak with all the restrictions, problems, happiness, devastation, lost dreams, and betrayal as any other family. Handsome and uber-talented Kiva is a lovesick artist with a turbulent relationship with his father and his artistic expression.

The Makeup Museum, which opens in May 2020 in the Meatpacking District of New York City, will celebrate the history of cosmetics and its impact on society. A series of rotating exhibitions will concentrate on makeup history, focusing on one decade at a time. The kohl eye of Cleopatra to the eyeliner of Sophia Loren, all will be explored. The Makeup Museum’s first exhibition, “Pink Jungle: 1950s Makeup in America,” will spotlight iconic beauty trends along with the influential women of the decade, including Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo, and Audrey Hepburn. The decade of the 1950s is credited as the birth of the modern makeup industry with the emergence of pioneering brands like Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, Max Factor, and Sally Hansen. The museum’s semi-permanent pop-up space will be located at 94 Gansevoort Street and will be open for six months starting spring 2020. There are future plans to open a permanent space in a New York flagship.