A day of work at home is not a day off, and the clothes worn through it do more than they appear to. They appear on camera at nine, sit at a desk for hours, move through rooms kept cool by air conditioning or warmed by a winter sun through glass, and go out of the door for a coffee or an errand without a second thought. Linen for working from home answers all of these at once, and it has a quality most home clothes lack: it looks considered while feeling like nothing at all.

The camera comes first. On a video call, the eye goes to the collar and the shoulders, and a shirt with a real collar frames the face better than a T-shirt. Solid colours read more cleanly on screen than fine stripes or small checks, which can shimmer on a camera sensor. A mid-tone works better than bright white, which can glare under a desk lamp, or black, which can lose its shape against a dark wall. The Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Light Blue or Oyster, or the Male Linen Shirt in Blue, gives a calm, clear picture, and linen’s slight texture reads as quality on screen in a way flat cloth does not.

The room comes second. Homes in warm countries are often cooled to a temperature that suits the machine more than the body, and an air-conditioned study can feel chilly by mid-afternoon; in cooler climates, a room facing the sun can be warm by noon. Linen handles both. It lets heat out when the room is warm and, in a long sleeve, gives a light layer when the air is cool, as linen for air conditioning explores in more detail. The Bliss Linen Shirt, long-sleeved, in Grey or Sky Blue, is the most useful single shirt for a home office that changes temperature through the day.

The desk comes third. Hours of sitting are where clothes are most tested, at the waist, the seat and the backs of the knees. Trousers with an easy cut and a soft drape are kinder than anything stiff or fitted. PP Casual Linen Trousers in Vanille or Oatmeal have the relaxed line of a garment made for comfort but the finish of one made for going out, and their walnut buttons are a small pleasure each morning.

For women, the same principles hold. The PP linen blouse in Sky Blue or Pink frames the face on camera and works with any trouser or skirt off it. The HER Laos Linen Shirt in Blue or Grey, worn loose over a pair of trousers, is the closest thing to an office shirt that still feels like home. The HER Male Linen Shirt in White, open at the collar, is a clean canvas for a day of calls. When the day ends early or the weather is warm, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Lemon goes from the desk to an afternoon walk without a change.

The errand comes last, and it is where linen’s real advantage shows. The working day at home often ends with a walk to collect a child, meet a friend or buy dinner, and clothes chosen with a little care go out of the door as they are. There is no change from home clothes to outdoor clothes; the day simply continues. For a dinner at home that follows, linen for entertaining at home picks up the evening, and for those who still keep some days at an office, the linen shirt at the office covers the other half of the week.

There is also the matter of rhythm. A wardrobe for home working is worn often, washed often and lived in closely, and linen suits that life well. Its fibres soften with each wash, as how linen improves with wear explains, so that a shirt worn three days a week becomes, within a season, one of the most comfortable things in the cupboard.

The certified Belgian linen at the core of the Pieter Petros collection was grown in fields far from many of the desks it sits at today, and it is a quiet thought, on a long afternoon of calls, that the shirt on camera began as a field of blue flowers in western Europe.

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