I grew up in a small town right outside of Houston, Texas.  If you know anything about Houston, you probably know that (1) it has the best TexMex food EVER (seriously, who can’t dip, like, a thousand chips in the chile con queso of Ninfa’s or Casa Ole), (2) it is home to NASA’s Mission Control, which takes over after launch (and at which Gene Kranz allegedly said, in response to someone complaining that Apollo 13 was going to be NASA’s biggest disaster, “With all due respect, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour” … oooh, MAJOR chills every time I hear that), and (3) it is humid as all get-out.

Growing up in this humidity prepared me quite well for my trip to Thailand this week.  You see, Thailand is so humid that my hotel room has a “humidity gauge” so I can be prepared for the amount of moisture that is going to cover me like a blanket as soon as I walk outside.  When I opened my balcony this afternoon to check out the view of the river, all of my mirrors fogged up in about 60 seconds.  It might as well be raining, but it’s not (other than some short, desperate bursts that sound as if the atmosphere is saying, “I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!”).

So how do you survive humidity that’s 83% at 10 pm at night and still be somewhat fashionable?  What I learned from growing up in the Houston area (and what I am applying to this week in Thailand) is the following:

1. Wear lightweight, natural fabrics that breathe.  Cotton and linen are the obvious choices, and while some people eschew silk since it can repel water and wrinkle,  I’m a fan of a good summer silk since it’s super-light and can stay cool on your skin by catching whatever breeze there is.  This silk Altuzarra dress that I got from Net-a-Porter (http://www.net-a-porter.com) has been perfect.  The silk is lightweight and doesn’t wrinkle, and the dress is button-down with two side slits that afford plenty of air circulation.  Definitely avoid most synthetic fibers since they are NOT breathable and will cause all that moisture to keep building up until all you can think about is jumping fully clothed into the nearest pool.
2. Embrace the bad hair day.  My blog pics should be a testament to the fact that I like to have some body in my hair.  While that’s totally do-able in Los Angeles, it’s a complete pipe dream in a humid climate like Houston or Thailand since any style will just fall out of your hair the minute you walk outside.  In Houston, I used that Aussie “instant freeze” hair spray in the purple canister that hardened your hairstyle so much that it basically broke the teeth of a comb if you tried to pull one through it:
   

   I can’t go back to that, so I’ve just gotten comfortable rocking the super-straight look.

3. Go for minimal make-up.  The huge upside of humidity is that your skin will look awesome — all young and dewy.  You don’t need much make-up, which is good because the huge downside of humidity is that your make-up will melt in about five minutes outside.

To sum it all up in one image, my goal is to mimic Ashley Judd or Sandra Bullock in a John Grisham movie where sweat is glistening off my skin in a totally sultry, non-gross kind of way.  Hollywood-ish, I know, but wouldn’t it be great if we could all make humidity look this good: