There is a particular pleasure in taking linen out of a wardrobe in midwinter. The summer shirts have been folded since September. Outside it is dark at four and the coat is by the door. And on the bed a suitcase lies open, to be filled with cloth made for heat. Linen for winter sun is a wardrobe of its own, with its own logic, and it differs in small but useful ways from the one packed in July.

The first difference is that winter sun is gentler. The places people travel to between December and March, the Gulf, the Caribbean, the islands of the Indian Ocean, are at their mildest in those months. Dubai sits in the mid twenties by day. The Caribbean is dry and stirred by the trade wind. The air is clear and the light is lower and more golden than in high summer. It is warmth to sit in at noon, which a Mediterranean August is not, and it asks for a wardrobe with a little more cover and a little more colour.

The second difference is the evening. After sunset in the Gulf winter the temperature falls to the high teens, and in the desert lower still; on a Caribbean terrace the wind does not stop when the light goes. A long sleeve becomes the garment of the evening. For men, the Bliss linen shirt in Dark Blue or Vanille, or the Laos long sleeve linen shirt in Oyster, with PP casual linen trousers. For women, the Amelia linen dress shirt with its full sleeve, or the PP linen blouse. Linen is warmer than its reputation when the air is still and dry: the same fibre that releases heat by day holds a layer of air against the skin by night. The Journal considers this in wearing linen in winter.

The third difference is the journey. A summer traveller leaves warm and arrives warm. A winter traveller leaves a frozen platform and steps, eight hours later, into twenty-six degrees. The answer is to dress for the arrival and cover it for the departure. A linen shirt and linen trousers under a coat and a knitted layer, both of which come off on the aircraft and go into the bag overhead. Linen is comfortable through a long flight, since it does not hold warmth against the body in a heated cabin, and whatever creases it gathers on the way are of no consequence at the other end.

Colour deserves reconsidering for the season. High summer bleaches everything, and pale colourways are its natural dress. Winter light is softer and shows colour truthfully. This is the moment for Dubarry, Violet, Hibiscus and Coral Orange, for Orchid in the Vibes linen shirt and the PP linen blouse, for Sapphire Blue and Roosewood Pink in the trousers. Certified Belgian linen takes dye with depth and a matte surface, and in a low sun those colours have a warmth they do not have in the glare of July. White and Oyster remain, as they always do, for the morning.

The list is short. For him: two shirts for the day, the Laos short sleeve or the Vibes; two long sleeve, the Bliss or the Laos long sleeve; PP linen shorts for dry land; PP natural swim shorts for the water; one pair of PP casual linen trousers. For her: two Amelia linen dress shirts, one pale and one strong; a PP linen blouse; a ladies linen set. Each garment is worn with each other one, and all of it, rolled, takes up less than half a case. They are found in the men's linen collection and the women's linen collection.

There is a practical ease to winter sun as well. Linen dries on a balcony in an hour in dry air, so a week can be dressed from very little. Sunscreen and salt rinse out in cool fresh water. The humidity that softens creases in the tropics is lower in a Gulf winter, so a shirt hung in the bathroom while the shower runs, then smoothed by hand, is ready for dinner.

Several of the places where the PP collection is presented are winter-sun addresses in their own right: Park Hyatt Dubai and its Lagoon Beach Club on the Creek, Surf Club Dubai and Sofitel The Palm Beach Resort on the Palm, and Four Seasons Resort and Residences, Río Grande, Puerto Rico, on the Atlantic coast of the island. A guest who has packed too little, which is the right way to pack, can add to it there.

For particular destinations the Journal has what to wear in Dubai in winter and what to wear in St Barts. The principle travels with the suitcase. On the last evening the shirts are creased, faintly salted and slightly paler than they were. They go home, are washed, and are folded away again until the next time the days grow short.

What to Wear in Dubai in Winter  ·  Can You Wear Linen in Winter?  ·  What to Pack for a Luxury Resort