Buying Degs and Sal comes down to a few checks you can do from the product page. Everything else is preference. Sneaker sizing runs a half size small across most of these brands. A wide toe box matters more than cushioning if you are on your feet all day. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is last shape, toe box width and cushioning. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: shopdoen.com's MALIN MULE -- EMBELLISHED EGGSHELL SATIN at $448, and Eric Javits's Aura Mule Black at $345. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Sneaker sizing runs a half size small across most of these brands. A wide toe box matters more than cushioning if you are on your feet all day. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Keep the sneaker quiet if the rest of the outfit is doing something. From the second group, Casablanca's Women's Pink Del Mar Sneaker ($375) 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, heels, 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 pieces here from 14 brands, $50 to $894, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. aldoshoes.com's Suitsneaker at $50 is the low-risk way in, and anndemeulemeester.com's Kiril Santiago Ankle Boots at $894 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to Degs and Sal without any single purchase being compulsory. 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: if you would not buy it at full price, you do not want it on sale.