The Best Linen Brand for St Barts
The Best Linen Brand for St Barts
A French island with a Swedish past and a Caribbean sun, and the linen that belongs on it.
For St Barts, look for linen woven from long European flax, certified and handmade, in pale colours for the beaches and deeper ones for Gustavia at night: that is what Pieter Petros makes, in certified Belgian linen, handmade in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium. The island is warm all year, its sun is strong, and its evenings are quietly dressed, three reasons linen suits it better than almost any other cloth.
Saint-Barthélemy is French, a collectivity of its own since 2007, with the euro, French bread and a French sense of occasion. Its history is unusually layered: from 1784 to 1878 the island was Swedish, and its harbour town still carries the name of the king who acquired it, Gustav III. The season runs through the dry months, roughly December to April, peaking over Christmas and New Year; from June to November the hurricane season brings a quieter island, and many hotels close in early autumn.
“St Barts dresses simply and notices everything. In that light, the cloth does the talking.”
— Pieter Petros, founderWhat should a linen brand be judged by in a place this considered? The fibre and its proof, first. Certified Belgian linen comes with papers that trace the cloth back to European fields, and a brand should be able to say which of its colourways carry them. Then the making, by hand rather than in volume, and the finish: seashell buttons on PP shirts, walnut on the shorts, trousers and swim shorts. On an island where the eye is trained, these are the details that are read. The wider region is covered in our guide to linen for the Caribbean.
Gustavia is the island’s small, horseshoe-shaped harbour, its quays lined with restaurants and red-roofed houses climbing the hillside. By day it is a town for walking: errands, a coffee, the boats. The Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Vanille with PP linen shorts in Beige, from the men’s linen collection. In the evening, when the harbour lights come on, the register lifts: the Monte-Carlo Male in Oyster, its walnut buttons a quiet detail, with PP Trousers 100% Linen in White. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster, the one Amelia finished in walnut, worn as a dress in itself, from the women’s linen collection.
The beaches are the island’s real luxury, and the most admired are the least developed. Saline and Gouverneur have no hotels behind them; both are reached by road and then a short walk over a rise of dune or rock. Colombier, at the island’s north-western tip, is reached only on foot along a coastal path or by boat. These are beaches of sun, wind and very little shade. In the water, PP swim shorts in Oyster or Sapphire Blue, all in Belgian linen and made to be swum in; on the walk back, a long-sleeved Laos in Beige Cream over dry swim shorts, sleeves rolled, for the sun on the path.
Saint-Jean is livelier, its bay framed by the rock of Eden Rock and its beach a short walk from the airport’s famously brief runway. Grand Cul-de-Sac, on the north-east, is a shallow lagoon protected by a reef, calm water for paddling and lunch with the trade wind. For lunch on either, the Vibes Linen Shirt in Dubarry, its shorter, easy cut meant for warmth, with PP linen shorts in White; for her, the Linen Ladies Set in Light Blue.
Winter is the island’s formal season. Over New Year the harbour fills with yachts and the island’s calendar with dinners; in March, the St Barths Bucket Regatta brings the great sailing yachts to the bay. For these evenings, Dubarry and Violet hold their depth after dark: the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Violet for him, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Violet or Dubarry for her.
The collection is ordered online and sent ahead to the villa or hotel. In the Caribbean it is also presented at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Puerto Rico, in Río Grande. The full island wardrobe is set out in what to wear in St Barts.
