Some shirts are bought for one occasion; others are reached for on most days of a summer. The PP HER Male Linen Shirt belongs to the second kind: a plain linen shirt with a collar and a button front, in the women's collection.

It is the women's version of the Male Linen Shirt, one of the men's shirts of Pieter Petros, described in our Male Linen Shirt guide; the HER Male Linen Shirt sits in the women's linen collection in two colourways, White and Pink. The White is offered from S to 3XL and the Pink from M to XXL. Both are linen, with natural seashell buttons.

Its natural setting is the open, unstructured way of wearing a shirt: the collar open, the shirt left loose over white trousers or a swimsuit, or tucked at the front only into a high waistband. In White it is one of the plainest garments in the women's collection and sits beside almost anything. In Pink it brings a soft colour close to the face, flattering on tanned skin and easy with white or cream below.

Sizing is a matter of how it should fall. Taken in her usual size it sits as a relaxed shirt; taken a size up, it becomes a shirt to wear open over a swimsuit or a PP Tee. Because the Pink begins at M and the White at S, a smaller woman who wants the closer version may find the White the easier choice. The size chart on each product page is worth consulting before ordering.

It helps to know how it differs from its neighbours. The PP linen blouse is a blouse proper, reaching the hip and finished with a curved hem, in Lemon, Orchid, Pink and Sky Blue; its details are in the PP linen blouse guide. The HER Laos Linen Shirt, in Blue, Grey, Orange and Pink, has a guide of its own. The Amelia linen dress shirt is a dress rather than a shirt to tuck in, and the line between it and the blouse is drawn in PP linen blouse vs Amelia linen dress shirt. The HER Male Linen Shirt is the one to reach for when a woman wants a classic shirt rather than the shape of a blouse.

On holiday it is among the most adaptable of the women's shirts. At a beach club it goes over a swimsuit; in town it is tucked into trousers with flat sandals; in the evening, buttoned a little higher, with earrings and a long skirt or wide trousers, it is relaxed and quietly smart. Over it, one of the HER gillets, the HER Abundance Gillet or the HER Monte Carlo Gillet, adds a layer for a cooler night; both are described in the HER gillet guide.

It also sits easily with the rest of the women's collection. Worn open over the shorts of a ladies linen set in Light Blue or Mint Green, the White gives the set a second, cooler look for the walk from the beach; the Pink pairs with the PP linen blouse's Sky Blue as a change of colour across a week.

There is a quieter pleasure in it too. The Male Linen Shirt in White and the HER Male Linen Shirt in White, worn by two people on the same evening, match without looking planned, because the colourway is shared while each shirt is chosen and sized for the person wearing it.

Its care is that of any linen shirt, set out in how to wash linen shirts.

White is the colourway to begin with. It runs in the wider span of sizes, from S to 3XL, and a plain white linen shirt, worn open, looks right on almost any day of a summer.

Read more: The White Linen Shirt for Women  ·  How to Style a Linen Shirt for Women