Syros is the Cycladic island that does not look like one. Where its neighbours are white cubes on brown rock, Ermoupoli climbs from the harbour in ochre, rose and cream, with pediments, iron balconies and a town hall attributed to Ernst Ziller facing a square paved in marble. It is the administrative capital of the island group, a working town with courts, a shipyard and students, and it keeps its hours in January much as it does in July. What to wear in Syros follows from that. This is a town first and a beach second, and linen here is worn with a little more care than on the islands around it.

For a man, the day in Ermoupoli suits a long sleeve turned back twice: the Bliss Linen Shirt in Sky Blue or Dark Blue with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Vanille reads correctly at a café table under the arcades of Miaouli Square and equally at a notary's door. Shorts are not wrong in August, but the town is dressed, and trousers sit more easily among people who are on their way to work. One practical point belongs to the paving. The marble underfoot has been polished by a century and a half of use and can be slick after the streets are washed, so a sole with some grip serves better than a smooth leather one.

East of the square, the Vaporia quarter is the island's grand gesture: shipowners' mansions built to the edge of the rock, the blue dome of Agios Nikolaos above them, and concrete bathing platforms below where the town swims before lunch. A few streets inland stands the Apollon Theatre, opened in the 1860s and often described as a small cousin of La Scala. It still stages opera and music in summer, with a programme worth checking before travelling. An evening there asks for the same shirt as dinner, buttoned one higher. The men's shirts are gathered in the PP linen collection for him, most of them finished with seashell buttons.

Above the port, on the left-hand hill, is Ano Syros, the medieval settlement founded in the Venetian period and still home to the island's Catholic community, with the cathedral of Saint George at its summit. There are no cars, only steps, vaulted passages and doorways painted in the colours of the sea. The rebetiko musician Markos Vamvakaris was born here, and a small museum keeps his memory. The climb is kinder in the late afternoon. Churches on both hills expect covered shoulders and knees, so a woman might choose the PP linen blouse in Sky Blue with long, loose trousers from her own wardrobe, and keep the Amelia linen dress shirt for the waterfront later.

The beaches lie on the west and south coasts, a short drive across an island that takes little time to cross. Kini faces the sunset and has fish tavernas at the edge of the sand. Galissas is the long, sheltered bay; Delfini and Agathopes are quieter; Poseidonia, which older residents still call Dellagrazia, is lined with nineteenth-century villas behind garden walls. A man swims here in PP natural swim shorts in Sapphire Blue or Oatmeal, and the ladies linen set in Mint Green or Light Blue is enough for lunch a few steps from it. Dinner at Kini often begins before anyone has gone home to change, which is the argument for a Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Dubarry in the beach bag.

Syros also eats well, and specifically. The harbour shops sell loukoumi and halvadopita, the nougat pressed between two wafers that visitors carry home in boxes, and the island's San Michali cheese appears on most menus. After dark the town walks: the evening volta along the waterfront is the main event, and it is where the difference between Syros and its neighbours is most visible. People are dressed as they would be in a small Italian city. The core of the PP collection is certified Belgian linen, and its dry hand and matte surface belong in that company. The women's garments are in the PP linen collection for her.

Because the island does not close, the calendar is wider than elsewhere in the Cyclades. May, June, September and October are warm by day and noticeably cooler after dark in Ermoupoli, when a long-sleeved shirt earns its place and a light layer over the Amelia linen dress shirt is sensible. July and August bring the meltemi, felt more on the northern heights than in the harbour. Ferries arrive from Piraeus and from neighbouring islands, including Tinos to the north and Mykonos to the east, and there is a small airport; timetables change with the season.

The suitcase for Syros, then, leans one step towards the city: more long sleeves than short, trousers as well as shorts, something for the theatre. The island does not ask for formality. It asks only that a visitor notice it is a town, with a town's sense of occasion, and dress as someone glad to be walking through it.

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