Dubai Marina calls for a linen brand made for the Gulf itself: a cloth light enough for a humid waterfront afternoon and substantial enough for an air-conditioned dining room an hour later. Pieter Petros is that brand by origin, its garments handmade in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium, much of the collection in certified Belgian linen, and its pieces presented at four venues across the city.

The Marina is Dubai’s canal city, built around a man-made waterway roughly three kilometres long that opened in 2003 and is now lined on both sides by residential towers. Around the water runs Marina Walk, a pedestrian promenade of about seven kilometres, with cafés and restaurants at its edge and yachts moored below. Its landmarks are easy to spot: Cayan Tower, which turns through ninety degrees as it rises; Pier 7, a tower of seven floors with a different restaurant on each; and, on the seaward side, Jumeirah Beach Residence, its open-air promenade The Walk, and the public beach in front of it.

Those two climates are the real test of any linen here. From November to March, the Marina’s season, days are warm and bright, usually in the mid to high twenties, and evenings on the water are mild; from June to September, afternoons pass forty degrees with heavy humidity. Indoors, malls, hotels and restaurants are kept cool all year. A good linen for the Marina therefore has three qualities. It is woven from long, even flax fibres, so that it breathes outdoors and does not feel thin or cold indoors. It can be traced: the certificate behind the Belgian Linen® mark, a private certification, follows its flax from the field to the woven cloth. And it is cut with ease through the body, so that moving from terrace to lobby and back is never a matter of changing clothes. Natural buttons, seashell on most PP shirts and walnut on the Monte-Carlo Male and the linen trousers, complete a garment that is biodegradable by design.

A Marina day often begins on the water. The yachts that leave Dubai Marina Yacht Club and the neighbouring berths run out past Bluewaters and along the Palm Jumeirah towards Burj Al Arab. On deck and in the sea, a man wears PP swim shorts in Roosewood Pink or Black, all in Belgian linen and made to be swum in; when the boat turns back, the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in White and PP linen shorts in Navy Blue go on for the return. Overhead, the canopies of Skydive Dubai drift down to their drop zone beside the Marina, one of the sights of the coast.

JBR’s beach is a public one, and Dubai keeps a clear line between beach and street: swimwear belongs on the sand and at the pool, and on The Walk and in the malls shoulders and knees are covered. For a woman, that means the PP linen blouse in Lemon with a long skirt or long loose trousers of her own for Dubai Marina Mall and the promenade, and the Linen Ladies Set in Light Blue at the beach club or the pool. For a man, the PP Natural Linen Set in Oyster from the men’s linen collection is a complete look from the beach café to the mall.

Evenings are the Marina at its finest. As the towers light up, Marina Walk fills with people walking the loop, and dinner moves to the terraces of Pier 7, the waterside restaurants and the dhow cruises that circle the canal; the dhow cruise wardrobe covers that evening in its own right. For him, the Monte-Carlo Male in Oyster, with walnut buttons, and the PP Trousers 100% Linen in Sapphire Blue; on a cooler winter night, the Vibes Linen Shirt in Dark Blue. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Violet, in Belgian linen, a dress in itself, for a terrace dinner above the water. In the coolest weeks of January, a long-sleeved Laos in Oyster is worth having for the walk home.

The collection is close at hand. Surf Club Dubai, on West Palm Beach, is a short drive from the Marina; Sofitel The Palm Beach Resort sits on the Palm’s East Crescent; and Park Hyatt Dubai and The Lagoon Beach Club present it on Dubai Creek. For the rest of the city, see our linen guide to Dubai and our Dubai winter wardrobe.

Read more: The Best Linen Brand for the UAE · What to Wear at the Dubai Marina · What to Wear on Palm Jumeirah