For the Caribbean, the linen to trust is the one that can show where its flax was grown and how the garment was made: certified Belgian linen, loosely cut, finished by hand. Pieter Petros brings exactly that to the islands, and in Puerto Rico the collection can be seen in person at the resort boutique of the Four Seasons Resort and Residences, Río Grande.

The Caribbean is not one place but a long arc of islands, each with its own inheritance. St Barts and Martinique are French, Barbados and Antigua carry centuries of English history, Aruba and Bonaire are Dutch, Puerto Rico is Spanish in its old streets and American in its passport. What a man or woman wears to dinner in Gustavia is not what they wear to a Sunday service in Holetown, and a wardrobe that respects those differences is one of the quieter pleasures of travelling here.

What the islands share is the climate. Afternoons sit close to 30°C for most of the year, the sea stays warm in every month, and the trade winds blow steadily from the east, cooling the windward coasts and the hilltops. The dry season, roughly from mid-December to April, is the high season, when the harbours fill and the restaurants are booked weeks ahead. The Atlantic hurricane season runs officially from 1 June to 30 November, with its peak between August and October; summer visits are quieter, greener and more humid. Constant warmth and steady humidity are precisely the conditions in which the quality of linen shows.

So what separates one linen garment from another? The fibre, first: long, regular flax fibres make a smoother, stronger yarn that softens with every wash rather than wearing thin. Then the evidence. Belgian Linen® is a private certification mark, and the certificate follows the flax from the field to the woven cloth; how the Belgian linen certificate of origin works explains what a label can and cannot promise. Then the cut, which in this heat should leave air between cloth and skin. And finally the hand that made it. Pieter Petros garments are handmade in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium; the shirts close with buttons cut from seashell, which feels entirely at home on an island, and the linen trousers and the Monte-Carlo Male shirt carry buttons of walnut. Every material is natural, so each garment is biodegradable by design.

St Barts sets the most polished tone. In Gustavia, the little red-roofed harbour town, swimwear stays at the beach and the streets are dressed, above all over Christmas and New Year, when the yachts lie stern-to along the quay. For dinner by the harbour, the Monte-Carlo Male in Oyster, with its walnut buttons, and PP Casual Linen Trousers in Vanille from the men’s linen collection. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Hibiscus, in Belgian linen, a dress in itself and a colour that seems made for that light. The St Barts wardrobe is set out in full elsewhere in the journal.

Barbados divides itself by coast. The west, around Holetown and Speightstown, faces the calm Caribbean Sea and lives at the pace of long lunches and sunset swims; the east, at Bathsheba, faces the open Atlantic and its rolling surf. In Bridgetown, the historic centre and its Garrison have been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2011. Sunday in Barbados is still observed, and a church asks for covered shoulders and knees: for her, the PP linen blouse in Orchid, in Belgian linen, with a long skirt or long loose trousers of her own; for him, the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Oyster, in certified Belgian linen, with the PP Trousers 100% Linen in White.

Antigua is an island of sailors. English Harbour and the Antigua Naval Dockyard, known to everyone as Nelson’s Dockyard and inscribed by UNESCO in 2016, become the centre of the Caribbean sailing world each year at the turn of April and May, when Antigua Sailing Week fills the anchorage. On deck and in the water a man wears PP swim shorts in Sapphire Blue or Oyster, all in Belgian linen; ashore at the dockyard in the evening, the Vibes Linen Shirt in Orchid, in Belgian linen, goes back on. For her, the Linen Ladies Set in Coral Orange, easy from the pontoon to the bar.

Puerto Rico offers the widest range in a single stay. Old San Juan, its fortifications and La Fortaleza listed by UNESCO since 1983, is best walked in the early morning over its blue-grey cobblestones: a Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Coral Orange, in Belgian linen, with PP linen shorts in Beige, and for her the Amelia linen dress shirt in Violet. Out on the northeast coast, in Río Grande, the Four Seasons Resort and Residences lies between El Yunque National Forest and the Atlantic, and its boutique carries the Pieter Petros collection; a morning walk in the rainforest and an afternoon on the beach can share one day, and one well-chosen suitcase.

The other islands each deserve their own chapter, and most have one in this journal. Wherever the arc of the Caribbean takes you, the collection can be ordered online and delivered ahead to the villa or the hotel, so that the right linen is waiting when the boat or the plane arrives.

The Best Linen Brand for St Barts · What to Wear on a Mexico Honeymoon · Linen Shirt for Hot Weather Travel