For Anguilla, choose linen that needs no logo to be read: a natural fibre with a traceable origin, a clean cut and careful finishing. The island is a low coral strip of about sixteen miles with no high-rise hotels and no cruise pier, where a day is measured in beaches rather than sights, and on an island with so little to distract the eye, people notice cloth.

The question to put to any brand is the one Anguilla puts to its visitors: does it need to announce itself? A shirt in certified Belgian linen, handmade in the Pieter Petros atelier in Dubai or in Belgium and finished with buttons cut from seashell, says what it is without saying anything at all.

How to tell good linen at a glance, on a beach where almost everyone wears it? Look at the surface first: fine linen shows the small natural irregularities of the yarn, the slubs, across an even overall texture, and never a shine. Then the fall: a well-made linen shirt hangs from the shoulders rather than clinging, and at the end of a day its creases are soft rather than sharp. Then the label. Belgian Linen® is a certification mark, and its certificate traces the flax from the field to the cloth; how to identify premium linen takes the subject further. The rest lies in the details: natural buttons, close and even stitching, a collar that keeps its line.

The island’s year divides cleanly. From mid-December to April the trade winds are steady, the air is dry and the afternoons sit in the high twenties; this is the season, and the hotels fill for Christmas and New Year. May and June are warmer and quieter. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June to the end of November, and in 2017 Hurricane Irma struck the island hard; several of its great hotels were rebuilt and reopened in the years that followed. Summer has a life of its own, too. Boat racing is the national sport, and during the Summer Festival, which reaches its height around August Monday, wooden racing boats crowd the bays.

Shoal Bay East, on the north coast, is the beach most visitors come for: a long curve of pale sand and shallow, clear water, with a few beach bars in the shade of sea grape trees. In the water, a man wears PP swim shorts in Oyster or Roosewood Pink, made in Belgian linen to be swum in; for lunch, a Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Vanille goes on over them once they are dry. Linen shorts are for the drive and the terrace, not the sea.

The west end belongs to the great hotels. Malliouhana stands on its bluff above Meads Bay, with a run of beach restaurants along the sand below; Belmond Cap Juluca curves around Maundays Bay with its white, domed villas; Rendezvous Bay looks across the channel to the hills of Saint-Martin. Dinner in this part of the island is relaxed but noticed. For him, the Monte-Carlo Male in Oyster, with its walnut buttons, and PP Trousers 100% Linen in Sapphire Blue from the men’s linen collection. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster, also with walnut buttons, or in Violet, both in Belgian linen; each is a dress in itself and asks for nothing more than sandals.

Mornings are often spent on the water. Small boats run from Sandy Ground to Sandy Island, a speck of sand with a beach bar a short ride offshore, and day trips go further out to Prickly Pear Cays for snorkelling and a grilled lunch. Swim shorts and a white shirt for the boat; for her, the Linen Ladies Set in Sky Blue, its shorts kept for the deck and the sand.

Sandy Ground itself, with its salt pond and its small harbour, is where the island goes for music in the evening, and on Rendezvous Bay the Dune Preserve, built by the musician Bankie Banx, hosts the Moonsplash festival each March. For a night like that, the Vibes Linen Shirt in Orchid, in Belgian linen, with PP linen shorts in White is easy and right; for her, the PP linen blouse in Orchid over light trousers of her own.

Most visitors reach Anguilla by ferry or private boat from Saint-Martin, a crossing of about twenty minutes from Marigot to Blowing Point, which is reason enough to travel light: a handful of linen pieces that all work together. Order them before the trip; in the Caribbean, the collection is also presented at the boutique of Four Seasons Resort and Residences, Río Grande, Puerto Rico. For a full wardrobe, day by day, see what to wear in Anguilla.

Read more: What to Wear in Anguilla for Women · What to Wear in Anguilla for Men · What to Wear in St Maarten