Sand is the first thing a desert stay tests in a garment. It is finer than beach sand, carried by every breeze, and by the end of a day in the dunes it has found its way into seams, pockets and collars. Linen sheds it well. The flax fibre is smooth and long, and a shake of the shirt at the tent door sends most of it back where it came from. That is only the beginning of why linen for desert stays makes sense, but it is a good place to start.

The season is the Gulf's cool months, from October to March, when the desert becomes a place to stay rather than to cross. In Oman, camps sit among the dunes of the Sharqiya Sands. In Abu Dhabi, Liwa lies at the edge of the Empty Quarter, where some of the region's highest dunes rise around desert resorts. The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, the canyons of AlUla and Wadi Rum in Jordan complete the picture. Each has its own character, but they share a climate: warm days, cold nights and a great difference between the two.

By day the sun is strong even in winter, and the light reflected from the sand adds to it. Long sleeves and long trousers keep the sun off the skin, and a loose cut lets the air move beneath. For him, a Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Beige Cream, close to the colour of the dunes, with PP Trousers 100% Linen in White, from the men's linen collection, is cool, covered and easy to move in on a dune walk or a camel ride. For her, the PP linen blouse in Lemon over long, loose trousers does the same, and for the hours at camp there is the ladies linen set in Sky Blue. In the villages on the way, modest dress is the courtesy.

Many desert resorts have pools, and afternoons are often spent beside them while the heat peaks. The PP swim shorts in Vanille, a pale, sandy colour, belong to the pool; the linen shirt is the cover-up for the walk back to the room.

Then the sun goes down, and the temperature falls fast. In the clear, dry air of the desert, a warm afternoon can give way to a night cold enough for a fire, the stars sharper than anywhere near a city. Linen alone is not a warm garment, and it does not pretend to be. Its role at night is as the base layer: a long-sleeved shirt under a wool knit or a light jacket, the natural fibres working together. A desert dinner around a fire or under a tent canopy is a relaxed occasion, and for her, at a desert resort's restaurant, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Violet is a dress for the evening, with a wrap against the cold.

The dry air brings a smaller, less obvious benefit. Static builds easily in the desert, especially at night, and charged fabrics attract dust and fine sand. Linen holds very little charge, because the moisture held in the flax fibre lets it drain away, so it stays cleaner and clings less in exactly the conditions where that matters.

Dawn is the desert's other great hour. Hot-air balloon flights rise over the dunes at first light, and early walks find the sand cold underfoot. The same layers that worked at night work at dawn, coming off one by one as the sun climbs. By mid-morning, the linen shirt is all that is needed again.

The desert also asks for less. A stay of two or three nights needs one or two linen shirts, a pair of linen trousers, swim shorts, a knit and a jacket; the sand and the light do the rest. Oman's wadis, the green valleys cut into its mountains, often come in the same journey, and what to wear in Oman's wadis carries the wardrobe there.

At first light the dunes are cold to the touch, and the tracks of the night, beetles, birds, a fox, are written across the sand before the wind wipes them away.

Read more: Linen for Winter Sun  ·  A Gulf Winter Wardrobe in Belgian Linen