The road east from the city runs for about 130 kilometres before the dunes give way to the brown folds of the Hajar Mountains. Hatta sits in those folds, an enclave of Dubai close to the Omani border, and from October to March it becomes the weekend the city drives out to. Hatta asks for a different wardrobe from the coast: the air is drier, the mornings are fresher, and the day moves between water, stone and a village where older customs still set the tone.

Begin with the mornings. Before the sun clears the ridges, the valley holds a coolness that the beaches of Jumeirah rarely know in winter, and a long-sleeved shirt earns its place at breakfast on a terrace. The Bliss linen shirt in Grey or the Laos Long Sleeve in Dark Blue covers the arm without weight, and by eleven the sleeves can be turned back once the light has warmed the rock. Those who have already built a winter wardrobe for Dubai will recognise the logic, only sharpened by altitude and open sky.

Hatta Dam is the reason most people come. The reservoir lies between bare slopes, its water an improbable green, and kayaks are rented by the hour from the shore. On the water the garment is the PP natural swim shorts from the natural swim shorts collection, in Sapphire Blue or Oatmeal, under the buoyancy aid the rental desk provides.

The Hatta Heritage Village asks for something different. Restored mud-brick houses and two watchtowers above the old settlement make it a place where considered, respectful dressing feels entirely right. For men this means long trousers: the PP Casual Linen Trousers in Oatmeal or Vanille, with a Male Linen Shirt in White or Blue buttoned to the collar bone. Women wear the PP linen blouse in Sky Blue or Orchid, its sleeves long enough for an afternoon in the village, with a skirt that reaches the ankle. The Amelia linen dress shirt, cut to the thigh, is kept for the hotel and the evening rather than the village.

The afternoons belong to the valley floor: the farms along the wadi, the honey sellers on the roadside, the lodges and the JA Hatta Fort Hotel with its gardens and long views. Here the cut can loosen. A Laos Short Sleeve linen shirt in Light Blue or Mint Green with PP linen shorts in Beige reads correctly at a lodge lunch, and the women's linen collection offers the ladies linen set in Mint Green or Light Blue for the same hours, easy under a wide hat.

Evenings change the arithmetic again. When the sun drops behind the ridge, the temperature follows it quickly, and dinner around a fire pit or under the stars is cooler than any evening in the city. The structure of a long-sleeved shirt matters more than its colour now; the Bliss in Dark Blue with the PP Trousers 100% Linen in Sapphire Blue gives a calm, dark line against the firelight. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Oyster or Dubarry with a knit across the shoulders. The thinking behind dressing for dry heat and cold nights is set down further in linen for desert stays, and it applies here almost unchanged.

Why linen at all, in a place of rock and cool mornings? Because flax fibre handles the swing between a fresh dawn and a warm noon without trapping heat, and because a weekend in the mountains is lived in one or two garments from breakfast to dark. The men's collection comes from the same emirate: PP's atelier is in Dubai, and the shirts for a Hatta weekend are handmade there and in Belgium.

Read more: What to Wear in Oman's Wadis  ·  What to Wear to a Desert Dinner