Milos is a volcanic island, and it shows it in colour. At Sarakiniko on the north coast the rock is white and smooth, worn into waves by wind and sea; at Firiplaka in the south the cliffs run in bands of red, ochre and grey; and in the fishing villages of Klima, Mandrakia and Firopotamos the syrmata, boathouses cut into the shore with living rooms above, have doors and balconies painted blue, green, red and yellow. A wardrobe for Milos is chosen against that palette, and so is the linen house behind it.

The island's history is written in its stone. Obsidian from Milos was carried around the Aegean thousands of years ago, and minerals are still drawn from the ground today. The statue known as the Venus de Milo was found in 1820 near Plaka, the hilltop capital, close to early Christian catacombs and a Roman theatre that looks over the bay. Kleftiko, a cluster of sea stacks and caves on the south-west coast, is reached by boat. Ferries arrive at Adamas from Piraeus, and short flights connect with Athens.

Against Sarakiniko's white, a pale shirt disappears, and colour holds its shape. A Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Mint Green or a Cuba Linen Shirt in Orange reads clearly against the rock and the turquoise water below it. In Plaka in the evening, Vanille and Oyster sit with the whitewash rather than against it, and a Monte-Carlo Male in Oatmeal with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Sapphire Blue suits dinner in the lanes of Plaka. The PP swim shorts in Roosewood Pink belong to the boat that goes round to Kleftiko and to the coves where the boat stops.

In Klima, where the painted doors set the tone, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Coral Orange or Violet answers them colour for colour, worn as a dress for lunch at one of the tables by the water. The ladies linen set in Light Blue suits the walk down the stepped lanes from Plaka and the long afternoon at Firiplaka, and the PP linen blouse in Orchid, from the women's linen collection, brings a softer colour to the evening walk through Plaka.

Colour in linen depends on the fibre beneath it. Flax for fine linen is grown in a narrow coastal belt of north-western Europe, from Normandy through Belgium to the Netherlands, where damp sea air and mild summers suit the plant, and certified Belgian linen is woven from that flax. Linen takes dye with a particular depth and a faint natural variation, a result of how linen is dyed, which is why a linen Mint Green or Coral Orange looks alive rather than flat against stone. Pieter Petros builds the heart of its collection on this cloth, and the garments are handmade, in Dubai and in Belgium.

The collection is presented within reach of Milos. On the Athens Riviera, where many journeys to the Cyclades begin, the boutique at One&Only Aesthesis carries it, and One&Only Kéa Island, a short crossing from Lavrio, holds it too. A few days at either before the ferry is time enough to choose a palette for the island.

The practical side of the island, beach by beach and evening by evening, belongs to what to wear in Milos. A linen wardrobe here is assembled the way the fishermen painted their doors: one strong colour each, set against a ground of white and stone.

Read more: What to Wear in Milos for Women  ·  Linen for Paros