From the air, the Exumas are a lesson in colour. The chain of cays runs for more than a hundred miles south-east of Nassau, and the water over the sandbanks shifts from almost white to turquoise to a deep ink where the Exuma Sound drops away. A linen brand for the Exumas is chosen partly on that palette: garments that sit easily against such water, and a cloth that answers the heat of the banks.

The Laos, Cuba and Bliss shirts of Pieter Petros are handmade and finished with seashell buttons, and their palette translates to the Bahamas without effort. Sky Blue, Light Blue and Mint Green read as part of the shallows; Vanille and Oatmeal as part of the sand.

Great Exuma is the working island, with George Town on Elizabeth Harbour, a small airport and a scattering of villa resorts along the Queen’s Highway. The Family Island Regatta fills the harbour with traditional Bahamian sloops each April. Here a Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Sky Blue and the PP Casual Linen Trousers in Vanille are the day, from the straw market to a lunch of cracked conch at a beach shack on Stocking Island. Our guide to what to wear in the Exumas follows the islands in more detail.

Further north, the cays become smaller and the sea becomes the street. Staniel Cay has a yacht club, an airstrip and the Thunderball Grotto, where swimmers drift into a domed cave at slack tide. The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, founded in 1958 and a no-take marine reserve since 1986, protects a long stretch of the chain. Days here are spent in tenders and on beaches with no road behind them. PP natural swim shorts in Oyster are worn in and out of the water; a Cuba Linen Shirt in Blue is thrown over them for the ride back.

Colour does real work in this light. White is luminous against the sand but can glare at midday; the softer tones of Oyster and Vanille hold their character in the brightness. Pink, in the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt or the Cuba Linen Shirt, sits naturally in a landscape of conch shells and painted clapboard. Dark Blue, in the Bliss Linen Shirt, is the evening tone, when the water turns to slate. More on choosing between them is in the men’s linen shirt colour guide.

For women, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Blue is the Exumas in a single garment, worn from a seaplane landing to dinner. The ladies linen set in Mint Green suits a day on the cays near the villa; the PP linen blouse in Sky Blue over a swimsuit is the passage between beach and table.

In the Caribbean, the PP collection is presented at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Puerto Rico in Río Grande, and the full collection is online. The Laos and Cuba shirts can be worn open over swim shorts or buttoned for dinner, and the natural buttons are part of the garment’s finish rather than an afterthought.

Read more: The Best Linen Brand for the Bahamas  ·  The Best Linen Brand for Harbour Island