Long before cotton or linen reached the Pacific, Tahitians made cloth from trees. Tapa was beaten from the inner bark of the paper mulberry and the breadfruit, soaked and hammered on wooden anvils until it spread thin and soft, then painted or dyed with plant colours. Later, missionary wives brought quilting, and the island turned it into tifaifai, bold appliquéd quilts still given at weddings and births. A place with that history understands natural material.

Tahiti is the largest island of French Polynesia, shaped like a figure of eight: Tahiti Nui, the larger, with Papeete on its northwest coast, joined by a narrow isthmus to Tahiti Iti. The interior is steep, green and wet, the beaches often black volcanic sand. November to April is the warm, humid season, with heavy showers that pass quickly.

The pareu is still widely worn, a length of printed cloth tied a dozen ways at the waist or the shoulder. Alongside it, linen for Tahiti sits comfortably: like the pareu, it is loose, light and made to move in humid air. In Papeete, a Male Linen Shirt in Blue with PP linen shorts in Beige is right for the Marché de Papeete in the morning, where flowers, vanilla, fruit and pareu are sold on two levels. Both are in the men's linen collection.

Evenings in town belong to the roulottes, the food trucks that gather on Place Vaiete by the harbour, serving poisson cru in coconut milk and grilled fish at plastic tables. It is informal and lively, and a Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Oyster with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Sapphire Blue is exactly enough. For women, the HER Laos Linen Shirt in Orange works with wide trousers in a neutral colour, and the Amelia linen dress shirt in Lemon goes alone to dinner at a hotel on the west coast. The women's linen collection holds both, with the PP linen blouse in Pink for a morning at the market.

The island's coast road leads to two very different places. Pointe Vénus, northeast of Papeete, is a black-sand point with a lighthouse, where Captain Cook observed the transit of Venus in 1769. At the far end of Tahiti Iti, Teahupo'o is home to one of the world's heaviest waves, where the Olympic surfing events of 2024 were held, watched from boats in the channel. For days by the sea, PP natural swim shorts belong at the water; on a spectator boat at Teahupo'o, a linen shirt over them gives shade, while linen shorts are kept for land.

There is a natural connection in the buttons too. French Polynesia is known for its pearl farms and for the iridescent shell of the black-lipped oyster. Most of the shirts in the Pieter Petros collection carry seashell buttons; the Monte-Carlo Male and the Oyster Amelia linen dress shirt carry walnut. Our note on natural buttons, from seashell to walnut and corozo explains each. The Amelia linen dress shirt in Lemon is natural linen; the Oyster colourway, with its walnut buttons, is certified Belgian linen.

The collection is presented at resort boutiques in Dubai, Greece, Portofino and Puerto Rico, and travellers to Tahiti usually choose their garments before the long flight through Los Angeles, Paris or Auckland. The guide to what to wear in Tahiti covers the island's wardrobe in full, and women will find more in the women's Tahiti guide.

In July, during the Heiva, the island dances in costumes of pandanus, feathers and shell, much of it from plant and sea. It is a reminder that in Tahiti, dressing in what the land and the sea provide is not a trend but an old habit, and linen fits into it without a sound.

Read more: What to Wear in Bora Bora  ·  What to Wear in the Cook Islands