Pieter Petros makes its garments by hand in a Dubai atelier, in certified Belgian linen, with buttons cut from seashell and walnut. Ninety minutes east of that atelier the road passes through the Hajar Mountains and comes down to a different sea. Anyone looking for a linen brand in Fujairah is usually looking for something the east coast itself suggests: a garment that is quiet, natural and made close by. This is an account of the house, and of why its linen belongs on this particular shore.

Fujairah is the only emirate whose coast lies entirely on the Gulf of Oman rather than the Arabian Gulf. The mountains stand directly behind the beaches, bare and brown, and the water in front of them is deeper, cooler and clearer than on the western coast. It is a place people go to be outdoors: to snorkel around the rock known as Snoopy Island off Al Aqah, to dive, to walk the wadis, to do very little beside a pool with a ridge line behind it. The mood is slower than Dubai and a good deal less dressed.

The climate decides the cloth. From October to April the coast sits between the mid twenties and the low thirties, with more humidity than the desert interior and a breeze off the water most afternoons. On a humid coast, what matters is that the cloth does not sit on the skin, and the natural stiffness of flax holds a shirt slightly away from the body. Belgian Linen is a certification mark for linen woven in Belgium from European flax, and PP uses it for the core of its collection. The background is set out in the guide to 100% Belgian linen.

What distinguishes one linen house from another is less the fibre than what is done with it. PP garments are handmade in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium, in small numbers. The buttons on the Laos, Cuba, Bliss and Vibes shirts are seashell; on the Monte-Carlo Male shirt and on the trousers and shorts they are walnut. Nothing in the garment is there for effect. A shirt made this way returns to the earth at the end of a long life, which on a coast of coral and turtles is not an abstract point.

For the east coast, a short list is enough. The Laos short sleeve linen shirt in Oyster or Beige Cream takes on the tone of the mountains behind the beach. The Vibes linen shirt, with its oversized cut, in Vanille, is the garment for the pool terrace. The Monte-Carlo Male in Oatmeal, with its walnut buttons, is a degree more dressed for dinner. PP linen shorts in Beige or Navy Blue are for dry land; PP natural swim shorts, in Oyster or Sapphire Blue, are for the reef. All are in the men's linen collection.

For women, the ladies linen set in Sky Blue or Mint Green, the PP linen blouse in Lemon or Orchid and the Amelia linen dress shirt in Dubarry or Coral Orange cover the same days. They sit in the women's linen collection. Away from the resorts, Fujairah is a conservative emirate and dress should recognise it.

That matters at the two places most visitors make time for. Al Bidya Mosque, a small earthen building of four low domes north of Khor Fakkan, dates from the fifteenth century and is widely described as the oldest mosque still in use in the Emirates. Fujairah Fort, restored on its rock above the old town, looks across date gardens to the sea. At both, shoulders and knees are covered, and at the mosque women cover the hair. The Laos long sleeve linen shirt with PP casual linen trousers is correct for him; for her, the long sleeve of the PP linen blouse, with a full-length skirt or trousers of her own.

One point of fact. PP is not presented in any boutique or hotel in Fujairah. In the Emirates the collection is found in Dubai: at Park Hyatt Dubai and its Lagoon Beach Club on the Creek, at Surf Club Dubai, and at Sofitel The Palm Beach Resort. Guests travelling east can find it there on the way, or order directly from the house before they leave. The neighbouring coast is covered in the Journal's piece on linen in Ras Al Khaimah.

Inland, the road back toward Dubai passes Masafi, where the mountain market sells pottery, carpets and fruit from the roadside, and the wadis open on either hand. It is country for an unhurried drive with the windows down.

Fujairah has no interest in being fashionable, which is much of its appeal. The right garment for it is one that has no interest in fashion either: a plain shirt in an honest cloth, made by hand an hour and a half away, worn until it is soft.

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