If you like Free People but not the price or the ubiquity, the useful move is to match the shape and the material rather than hunting a copy. A convincing alternative copies the proportion and the material, not the logo or the hardware. The details that give a cheap version away are lining, edge finishing and the weight of the fastenings. Check where the waist seam sits on the model against your own proportions. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is shoulder fit, length and how the fabric moves. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Monday Swimwear's Kokomo Kaftan - Midnight Cotton Voile at $149, and Fleur Du Mal's Seduce U-Plunge Midi Dress at $228. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Lining is what stops a cheap fabric reading as cheap. A dress that fits the shoulders can be taken in anywhere else. One that does not, cannot. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

A belt turns a shapeless dress into a deliberate one. Let the dress be the loudest thing you own that day. From the second group, meshki.com.au's Asha Floral Mesh And Satin Maxi Dress - Black ($329) 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, tops, 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 dresses here from 12 brands, $26 to $395, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Manymoons's Emma Dress - Seafoam Floral at $26 is the low-risk way in, and La Ligne's Anya Dress at $395 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to Free People 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: buy the one you can picture using this week, not the one you are saving for later.