What to wear in Palm Beach as a couple is decided by the season and by the island’s long habit of dressing well. Between December and Easter, when the town is at its fullest, a pair in pale linen, him in a collared shirt and long trousers, her in an Amelia linen dress shirt, will be right almost everywhere, from the loggias of The Breakers to a table off Worth Avenue. The rest is a matter of knowing which parts of the day ask for a little more.

Palm Beach is a winter town. Henry Flagler brought his railway down the coast in the 1890s and built the hotels that turned the island into a season for families escaping the northern cold, and the calendar still follows that pattern: the social season runs roughly from December to Easter, when days settle in the low to mid twenties and evenings by the ocean can call for a long sleeve. From late spring the heat and humidity build, afternoon storms arrive, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June to the end of November. Linen suits every month; winter only asks for one more layer after dark.

A town that has dressed for its season for well over a century notices the cloth. Before packing, two things are worth checking on every garment. The first is the fibre and its proof: much of the PP collection is certified Belgian linen, and its certificate of origin follows the flax from the field to the cloth. The second is the finish. PP garments are handmade in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium, with seashell buttons on most of the shirts and walnut on the Monte-Carlo Male, the Oyster Amelia and the linen trousers. Where the dress codes are quiet but real, it is these details, not a logo, that a well-dressed room recognises.

The Breakers is where most visits begin, even for those staying elsewhere. Flagler opened the first hotel on the site in 1896 as the Palm Beach Inn; after fire, the present building, modelled on the Villa Medici in Rome, opened in December 1926, with its twin towers, painted ceilings and long arcades over the Atlantic. By day, lunch by the pool or on the beach is relaxed. For him, the PP Natural Set in White, shirt and shorts in the same linen, from the natural sets collection; for her, the Linen Ladies Set in Light Blue. The shorts are for the terrace and the garden path; for the sea he changes into PP swim shorts in Oyster, made in Belgian linen. In the evening the hotel’s restaurants ask for more, and long trousers, a collared shirt and closed shoes are the safe reading for him.

Worth Avenue runs from the lake to the ocean, ending at the clock tower by the beach. Its charm lies in the vias, the narrow planted courtyards and passages laid out in the 1920s by the architect Addison Mizner, with fountains, bougainvillea and small cafés hidden from the street. An afternoon here is unhurried and slightly dressed. He wears the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Oyster, in certified Belgian linen, with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Oatmeal; she wears the PP linen blouse in Sky Blue with long loose trousers of her own. Oyster and oatmeal beside a clear blue: tones that sit easily against Mizner’s pale stucco and terracotta roofs.

The Lake Trail is the island’s morning ritual: about five and a half miles of path along the Lake Worth Lagoon, past the back lawns of the great houses and their docks, walked or cycled in the cool before the day warms. Linen is at its simplest here, the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Sky Blue and PP linen shorts in White for him, the Linen Ladies Set in Mint Green for her. The trail passes close to Whitehall, the house Flagler completed in 1902 as a wedding gift to Mary Lily Kenan, now the Flagler Museum, and near the gardens of the Society of the Four Arts. Both deserve an hour, and both are better visited in trousers or a dress than in anything from the beach.

Dinner is where couples in Palm Beach dress most deliberately. On Royal Poinciana Way and in the small restaurants off Worth Avenue the tone is smart and relaxed; at private clubs, guests follow the club’s own rules, which often include a jacket for men. For him, the Bliss Linen Shirt in Dark Blue with PP Trousers 100% Linen in White from the men’s linen collection, and the Monaco Blazer for the evenings that ask for a jacket. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster, a dress in itself, cut in certified Belgian linen and fastened with walnut buttons; on a second night, the Amelia in Violet from the women’s linen collection. Deep blue beside oyster on one night, and beside violet on the next: colours that answer each other rather than repeat.

Palm Beach is often paired with a few days in Miami, about seventy miles to the south, or with the mainland across the bridges, whose own guide, what to wear in West Palm Beach, covers the other side of the lagoon. The island itself rewards a short list, chosen well. A few pieces of linen each, and a week in which the only real decision is whether to walk to the ocean end of Worth Avenue before dinner or after it.

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