Kastellorizo lies at the far eastern edge of the Dodecanese, so close to the Turkish coast that the town of Kaş is plainly visible across a narrow stretch of water, while Rhodes is several hours away to the west by ferry. Its official name is Megisti, "the largest", which is accurate only within the small cluster of islets around it. The harbour is the island: a horseshoe of tall, narrow houses painted ochre, blue, rose and white, their wooden balconies leaning over a quay where nearly everything on Kastellorizo happens. There is no sandy beach, very little traffic and one promenade, and a stay moves between the quay, the castle steps and the water.

Days on the quay are slow and warm. The Cuba Linen Shirt in Blue over PP linen shorts in White sits easily with the painted façades, and its colour does not have to compete with them. For evening, when the tables along the water fill and the houses are lit from below, a Vibes Linen Shirt in Dubarry with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Sapphire Blue answers the colour of the harbour rather than ignoring it. Nobody here dresses up in the city sense; the effort shows in the choice of colour, not in a jacket.

The colour is a restoration. In the early twentieth century Kastellorizo was a prosperous trading port with a population many times today's, and much of the town was lost to fire and abandonment during and after the Second World War. Families who emigrated, a great many of them to Australia, kept their ties to the island, and the rebuilt façades along the harbour are the result of decades of return. Above the eastern end of the quay stand the ruins of the castle built by the Knights of St John on red rock, which is commonly said to have given the island its Italian name, Castello Rosso. A stepped path climbs past them, and below the castle a Lycian tomb is cut into the cliff, a reminder of how near the other shore has always been.

That climb is short but steep, and it is where what to wear in Kastellorizo makes a real difference: in the middle of the day the stone gives back the heat. Long, loose trousers and a shirt with some air in it make the steps easier than shorts and a fitted collar, and the view from the top, over the harbour and across to the mountains of Lycia, is worth arriving at without being uncomfortable.

The water is the other reason to come. Small boats leave the harbour in the morning for the Blue Grotto, a sea cave a short way along the coast, entered through a low opening, where reflected light turns the water a luminous blue; the boatmen on the quay will say whether the sea is calm enough for the entrance. Swimming on Kastellorizo is from rocks and ladders rather than beaches, and the PP swim shorts in Roosewood Pink are worn for the boat and the cave, while the PP linen shorts wait on the quay. The short crossing to Kaş is a common day out, but it is an international journey, so passports and the current arrangements need confirming beforehand.

The harbour is a place for the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster, finished with walnut buttons, worn on its own for a long lunch over grilled fish. During the day the ladies linen set in Light Blue moves from the quay to the rocks and back, and the PP linen blouse in Lemon, from the women's linen collection, is the lighter choice for the climb to the castle. In the town, the church of Agios Konstantinos and Eleni has granite columns said to have been brought from a temple on the opposite coast.

Kastellorizo is reached by a short flight or a long ferry from Rhodes. It shares the Dodecanese habit of colour with Symi, on a smaller scale than Rhodes, and it rewards the same restraint in dress: a few pieces in colours that sit beside the houses rather than in front of them.

Read more: What to Wear in Kos  ·  What to Wear in Lindos