The divi-divi trees on Aruba all lean the same way. Decades of easterly trade wind have bent their crowns towards the southwest, and anyone who spends a week on the island begins to understand why. The wind arrives with the morning and is still there at midnight, and it decides more about what a person wears here than the calendar does.

Aruba sits a short distance off the Venezuelan coast, south of the usual Caribbean hurricane tracks, and it is a dry island. The interior is scrub, rock and tall cactus, with a large part of the east protected as Arikok National Park, and rain is scarce for most of the year. From December the island fills with winter-sun travellers, and the combination of strong light, low humidity and steady wind is quite different from the green, humid islands further north. Before the trip, the collection can be seen at the resort boutique of Four Seasons Resort and Residences, Puerto Rico, in Río Grande, described on the Puerto Rico page.

Linen suits that wind for a simple reason: it is a woven fabric with an open, slightly dry hand, so moving air passes through the cloth rather than pressing it against the body. A linen shirt will lift and ripple at the hem on the Eagle Beach boardwalk, then fall back into place when you step out of the wind into a restaurant. That movement is part of the pleasure of wearing it. A looser cut helps; the men's linen collection has several.

Eagle Beach, on the low-rise stretch north of Oranjestad, is wide and quiet, with its famous fofoti trees shading the sand. Palm Beach, a little further on, is the livelier strip of high-rise hotels, beach bars and evening crowds. For both, the day begins in PP natural swim shorts, which belong at the water; the swim shorts collection runs from Sapphire Blue to Oatmeal. Above them, a Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Light Blue goes on when you walk up to lunch. What to wear in Aruba runs from arrival to departure, beach by beach.

The capital asks for a little more. Oranjestad's waterfront is lined with Dutch colonial façades in yellow, mint and coral, and dinner in the town or at one of the hotel restaurants along the coast is relaxed but considered. Here the Bliss Linen Shirt in Vanille, with its long sleeves, sits well over PP Casual Linen Trousers in Sapphire Blue. The trousers keep the evening breeze off the legs, and when the wind picks up after dark, a long sleeve is welcome. On the women's side, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster, with its walnut buttons, is worn as a dress from sunset to the last table, and the Linen Ladies Set in Mint Green covers the hours by day; both are in the women's linen collection.

The island's eastern side is wilder. The track to the Natural Pool in Arikok is rough enough to need a four-wheel drive or a guide, and Baby Beach, near San Nicolas at the southern tip, is a shallow, sheltered lagoon. On days like these, linen for Aruba comes down to a shirt that does not cling when it is warm; that is the one to pack.

The Bliss Linen Shirt and the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt are made by hand at the Dubai atelier and carry seashell buttons; the Oyster Amelia linen dress shirt carries walnut.

Read more: The Best Linen Brand for the Caribbean  ·  Linen in Humid Weather