Palm Springs was built by architects who believed a house should do only what it needs to do. Glass walls, thin roofs floating over steel posts, breeze-block screens that let the air through and keep the sun out: the mid-century homes of the Coachella Valley are an argument against excess. A linen shirt makes the same argument in cloth, which may be why the two look so natural together against the San Jacinto Mountains.

The season runs from late October to April. Winter days in the desert are typically warm and clear, often in the low to mid twenties Celsius, and the nights fall sharply cooler once the mountain's shadow crosses the valley in the late afternoon. Summer is another matter entirely; the town empties, and those who stay keep to the pool.

Each February, Modernism Week opens doors that usually stay shut, and its itineraries pass landmarks such as Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House, Albert Frey's own house high on the hillside and the Elrod House cut into the rock above Southridge; which interiors open changes from year to year. Days of this kind involve walking between driveways in full sun, then stepping into cool, shaded interiors. A short-sleeved shirt with some ease through the body is the right companion. The Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Mint Green belongs among the pink front doors and lemon trees of the old neighbourhoods; the Cuba Linen Shirt in Pink sits easily beside the terrazzo of a restored lobby.

A lighter palette suits the town, one that answers the painted doors, the citrus trees and the pale stucco around it. PP Casual Linen Trousers in Vanille complete the daytime look, with PP linen shorts in Beige for the hours between lunch and the pool. More on the short-sleeved Laos and its colourways can be found in the Laos Short Sleeve guide.

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway climbs from the valley floor into the pine forest of Mount San Jacinto State Park in about ten minutes, its rotating cars turning slowly as they rise. At the top the air is markedly colder, sometimes with snow on the ground in January. A long-sleeved shirt is the sensible choice for this excursion: the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Dark Blue, with a light knit for the mountain station.

Evenings in the valley are long and social. Dinner beside a hotel pool, a gallery opening in the Uptown Design District along North Palm Canyon Drive, a late drink in a garden lit by strings of bulbs. The Bliss Linen Shirt in Lemon Yellow, long sleeved, suits these hours over PP Trousers 100% Linen in Sapphire Blue. For women, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Lemon, with leather sandals, belongs to the same table; the PP linen blouse in Orchid, certified Belgian linen, pairs with wide trousers for a cooler night. Both are in the women's collection.

Desert air is dry, and linen behaves well in it. The fibre takes up what moisture there is and lets it go, the open weave lets the evening breeze through, and the creases that gather on the drive from Los Angeles sit comfortably in a town where nobody dresses stiffly. Further east the same climate shapes linen in Scottsdale; to the west, Los Angeles works on a softer, coastal version of it.

In the Americas, the PP collection's resort home is Four Seasons Resort and Residences, Río Grande, Puerto Rico, where the boutique holds the linen shirts beside the Caribbean.

For a day-to-evening wardrobe built around the town itself, what to wear in Palm Springs goes room by room through the season. This page answers a different question: which cloth belongs in a town whose buildings were designed to breathe.

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