The short answer on Tularosa Bikini: pick one anchor piece, keep the palette to two colours, and let the shoes decide how formal the whole thing reads. One piece should lead and the rest should stay quiet; two competing pieces read as an accident. Proportion does more than colour: volume on top wants something narrow below, and the reverse. Underwire and real cup sizing are the only things that give actual support. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is bust support, leg line and fabric weight. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: lspace.com's Isa Bikini Top - Hibiscus And Plumeria Oh My at $119, and Felina's No Show Stretch Bikini 5-Pack at $45. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Anything under about 18 per cent elastane will go slack after a season. Underwire and real cup sizing are the only things that give actual support. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Buy the cover-up at the same time or you never wear the swimsuit off the sand. From the second group, Felina's Signature Cotton Bikini 5-Pack ($25) is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The third group is smaller and deliberately narrower, swim pieces, for the decisions you make after the main one. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

There are 20 swim pieces here from 11 brands, $25 to $258, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Felina's Signature Cotton Bikini 5-Pack at $25 is the low-risk way in, and Cult Gaia's QUINCY BIKINI BOTTOM - BLACK at $258 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On tularosa bikini specifically: the difference between the top and the bottom of this list is real but smaller than the price gap suggests. Nothing here is included because it is famous, and price is not used as a proxy for quality anywhere on this page. If you take one thing away: buy the one you can picture using this week, not the one you are saving for later.