A single linen shirt does most of the work on Antiparos. It is worn open on the way to the beach in the morning, buttoned for lunch under a tamarisk, and buttoned again, perhaps with the sleeves turned back, when the one main street fills after dark. The island is small enough that the day never requires a change of register, only a change of light. Anyone deciding what to wear on Antiparos can begin from that fact and pack accordingly: few garments, natural cloth, colours that sit well against whitewash and dry stone.

The crossing explains the mood. Antiparos lies off the south-west coast of Paros, and the small car ferry from Pounta makes the passage in a matter of minutes; a passenger boat also runs from Parikia in season. You step off at the harbour and the village begins at once. A pedestrian street runs inland from the quay, past bakeries, a few boutiques and tables set out under bougainvillea, to a square and, just beyond it, the kastro. This is a fifteenth-century Venetian fortified settlement whose houses were built shoulder to shoulder so that their outer walls formed the defence. People still live in it.

For men, the daytime answer is the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt with PP linen shorts. Vanille, Oyster and White read cleanly against the village; Mint Green and Sky Blue suit the harbour. The shirts close with seashell buttons and the shorts with walnut. Because the island is flat near the town and many visitors move about by bicycle, a shirt that can be worn untucked and open at the collar is more useful than anything that needs to stay pressed. Linen will crease on a bicycle saddle and on a beach chair alike. On Antiparos that is simply how a day looks by four in the afternoon.

For women, the island suits the ladies linen set, a blouse and shorts cut from the same cloth, in Coral Orange, Lemon or Light Blue. The pieces separate easily: the blouse over a swimsuit at Psaraliki, the shorts with a plain top on the bicycle. The Amelia linen dress shirt, thigh length and buttoned through, is the evening garment for the main street, and its stronger colourways, Hibiscus and Violet, hold their own against the bougainvillea. The PP linen blouse in Orchid or Pink is the lighter alternative when the night is still. All of these are in the women's linen collection.

The one excursion that changes the brief is the cave. The Cave of Antiparos sits on a hillside in the south of the island and descends by several hundred steps past stalactites that visitors have been signing since at least the seventeenth century. It is markedly cooler inside than on the hillside above, the steps can be damp, and the climb back is steady. Closed shoes with grip are sensible, and a long-sleeve linen shirt is welcome on the way down and easy to open on the way up. It is a good example of why even a short island stay benefits from one long-sleeve linen shirt among the short sleeves.

The beaches reward going further than the town. Soros and Apantima lie along the south-east coast; Agios Georgios, at the southern tip, faces the uninhabited islet of Despotiko, where archaeologists continue to uncover a sanctuary of Apollo. Small boats make the crossing and continue to coves that cannot be reached by road. PP natural swim shorts are the garment for the water and for the boat's swim ladder, in Vanille, Oatmeal or Sapphire Blue. The linen shirt waits in a dry bag until the taverna at Agios Georgios, where lunch is grilled octopus and whatever came in that morning, eaten a few steps from the sea.

Wind is part of any Cycladic summer, and the channel between Paros and Antiparos is well known to windsurfers and kitesurfers because the Meltemi funnels through it in July and August. On the sheltered south-east beaches it is a pleasant breeze; on the west coast, at Sifneiko, where people gather to watch the sun go down behind Sifnos, it can be brisk enough by dusk to justify sleeves. A linen shirt with a little body in the cloth sits better in wind than a very fine one, which is one practical argument for a properly woven shirting.

PP garments are made by hand, in the house's Dubai atelier and in Belgium, and certified Belgian linen is the cloth at the centre of the collection. That provenance matters on an island like this for an unglamorous reason. A wardrobe of four or five pieces is washed often, dried on a line in the sun and worn again the next day, and well-made linen improves with exactly that kind of wear.

Antiparos has resisted becoming larger than it is. Dinner is on the street or in the square, the bars around the kastro stay open late, and the walk home is rarely more than ten minutes. Dress for the walk, and the rest takes care of itself.

What to Wear on Paros  ·  What to Wear on Naxos  ·  What to Wear on Sifnos