The Best Linen Brand for Kuwait — Cloth for Heat and Occasion
The Best Linen Brand for Kuwait
A summer of extreme heat, a winter spent outdoors, and what to ask of the linen worn through both.
A linen brand for Kuwait has to pass two tests: its cloth must breathe in dry heat well above 40°C and stay comfortable in cold air-conditioned rooms, and its garments must meet a society with a sharp eye for quality and clear expectations of modesty. Light, long-fibre linen, cut loose and made with care, is the answer to both.
Few capitals ask more of a shirt than Kuwait City. In July the average afternoon high is around 46°C, and for most of the summer life moves between air-conditioned rooms and short walks outside. Then, from November to March, the country changes: January afternoons sit around 18–19°C, evenings turn cool, and people move outdoors, to desert camps, the seafront and the month of Hala February that leads up to National Day on 25 February and Liberation Day on the 26th.
“Where the national dress is already white and flowing, a linen shirt has to meet a very high standard of its own.”
— Pieter Petros, founderKuwaitis know more about dressing for heat than any visiting brand. Many men still wear the ankle-length dishdasha with the ghutra on the head, and its lesson applies to any garment from elsewhere: cover the skin, let the air move, keep the colour light. In the diwaniya, the evening gatherings where men receive guests over small cups of coffee and long conversation, what a visitor wears is noticed quietly and remembered.
What, then, to look for in linen here? Weight first: in dry heat above 40°C, a lightweight linen with an open plain weave lets body heat escape, where a dense cloth traps it. Then the fibre: long flax makes a smoother, stronger yarn that softens with washing rather than wearing thin, which matters for shirts worn hard all summer. Then the cut, with room through the back and chest, and long sleeves for any time spent outdoors. And finally the evidence. Certified Belgian linen comes with a certificate that traces the flax from the field to the cloth, and Pieter Petros garments are handmade in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium, with buttons cut from seashell. The Belgian linen winter wardrobe for the Gulf goes further into the cooler months.
Souq Al-Mubarakiya, the old market in the heart of Kuwait City, is at its liveliest on evenings in the cooler months, when its alleys of spices, dates, perfume and cloth fill with families. The Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Beige Cream, in certified Belgian linen, with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Oatmeal from the men’s linen collection, is respectful and right for an evening there. For women, covered shoulders and knees are the norm in public places: the PP linen blouse in Orchid, in Belgian linen, with long loose trousers or a long skirt of her own.
Along Arabian Gulf Street, the seafront road that runs past the Kuwait Towers, inaugurated in 1979, and on toward Salmiya, winter evenings bring people out to walk and to eat by the water. For him, the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Oyster, open at the collar; on the cooler nights of January, the Monte Carlo Gillet over it.
The Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre, opened in 2016 beside Gulf Road, has given the city a stage for opera, concerts and theatre. An evening there is smart: the Monte-Carlo Male in Vanille, with its walnut buttons, and PP Trousers 100% Linen in White; for her, the PP linen blouse in Sky Blue with an evening skirt of her own, long to the ankle.
Between November and March, many families spend weekends at camps in the desert or at the chalets on the coast south toward Khiran. The desert asks for long sleeves against sun and wind, and colours that do not mind sand: the Laos Long Sleeve in Beige Cream again, or the PP Natural Set in Oatmeal for the chalet terrace. PP swim shorts in Sapphire Blue, in Belgian linen, belong only to the sea and the pool.
In high summer the wardrobe narrows. Time outside is short, from the car to a door, and the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in White, cut loose, is enough for it; indoors, where the air conditioning runs cold, a long-sleeved linen shirt with the sleeves rolled down is the more comfortable choice, as linen and air-conditioning explains.
Kuwait is a short flight from Dubai, where the collection is presented at Park Hyatt Dubai, Sofitel The Palm and Surf Club Dubai; it can also be ordered online before the season. Either way, it is a wardrobe for a country that dresses with care and expects the same of its guests, and what to wear in Kuwait follows it occasion by occasion.
Read more: What to Wear in Qatar and the Gulf · Buying a Linen Shirt in Kuwait · Linen for the Gulf
