A linen brand for Miami needs cloth that breathes in subtropical humidity, a cut that looks considered rather than casual, and a provenance that can be checked. Pieter Petros meets that standard with garments handmade in its Dubai atelier and in Belgium, much of the collection in certified Belgian linen and finished with seashell buttons.

Miami already has a linen shirt of its own. The guayabera, with its four pockets and rows of fine vertical pleats, has its roots in nineteenth-century Cuba, and by the mid-twentieth century its classic form was white linen. After 1959 it travelled with Cuban exiles to Miami, where the shops of Little Havana kept it alive. A city that wears the guayabera to family celebrations and to the office knows exactly what linen should do in the heat.

Miami’s year has two seasons rather than four. The wet season, from May to October, brings afternoons above 30°C, heavy humidity and sudden storms, and it overlaps with the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to the end of November. The dry season, from November to April, brings clear skies and days in the mid-twenties. Linen belongs to both: in summer for how quickly it dries against the skin, in winter as the natural weight for warm days and mild nights.

When judging a linen shirt for Miami, begin with how it is made. Turn it inside out: the seams should be clean and narrow and the stitching close and even, because linen frays where it is carelessly finished. Check the collar, which should keep its line after a humid day; the buttons, which on a fine shirt are natural rather than plastic; and the cloth, which should be woven from long flax fibre and feel crisp in the hand. The linen shirt buying guide takes each point in turn.

On Calle Ocho, Southwest Eighth Street, Little Havana keeps its own pace: dominoes under the trees at Máximo Gómez Park, a cafecito at a street window, music in the evening. A man in the Cuba Linen Shirt in Lemon Yellow from the men’s linen collection, with PP linen shorts in Beige, belongs to the street without imitating it; for her, the HER Cuba Linen Shirt in Lemon Yellow with trousers of her own.

The older, quieter Miami lies south and along the bay. Coral Gables, laid out in the 1920s as a Mediterranean-style city, has its Venetian Pool and the Biltmore hotel; on Biscayne Bay, Vizcaya, the Italianate villa James Deering built between 1914 and 1922, opens its house and gardens to visitors. These are places for long trousers and a collar: the Monte-Carlo Male in Vanille, with its walnut buttons, and PP Trousers 100% Linen in White; for her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Blue, a dress in itself among the stone balustrades.

The Design District and Wynwood are the city’s galleries and studios, Brickell its towers and rooftop bars. An evening there is smart but warm: the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Dark Blue, sleeves rolled, with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Sapphire Blue; for her, the Amelia in Violet, in Belgian linen, from the women’s linen collection.

Miami is also a city of water. On weekends, boats leave the marinas of Coconut Grove for the sandbars of Biscayne Bay, and the Rickenbacker Causeway carries cyclists and swimmers to Key Biscayne, where the lighthouse of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park stands at the southern tip. For the water, PP swim shorts in Sapphire Blue, in Belgian linen, for the bay itself; for the deck and the dock, a white Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt over dry swim shorts. The linen shirt on a yacht covers the rest.

For the city itself, a few pieces go a long way: one pale shirt for the day, one deeper one for the night, trousers that suit both and swim shorts for the bay. Across the water, the barrier island has a chapter of its own in linen for Miami Beach.

Read more: What to Wear in Miami · What to Wear in Miami for Women · Linen for Brickell