The short answer on How Much is Purple Jeans is below, and the honest version is that it depends on two or three things rather than one. Rigid denim gives about half a size after a week. Stretch denim gives it back after a wash. Anything over about 2 per cent elastane will bag at the knee by the afternoon. Check the leg opening, not the name; two brands can call the same measurement straight and wide. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is rise, leg opening and stretch content. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: wildoakboutique.com's Mesa Risen Jeans at $62, and normakamali.com's JEANS JACKET SHORT at $170. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Anything over about 2 per cent elastane will bag at the knee by the afternoon. Check the leg opening, not the name; two brands can call the same measurement straight and wide. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Rise decides everything above the waist, so pick the top second. Hem to the shoe you actually wear with them. From the second group, Faherty's Original Cotton Denim Pant - Bay Drift Wash ($198) 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, jeans, 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 jeans here from 13 brands, $32 to $498, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. shopdoen.com's COLLÉGIEN MERINO CASHMERE RIBBED CREW SOCKS -- BLEU JEANS at $32 is the low-risk way in, and Veronica Beard's Ledger Wide-Leg Denim Pant at $498 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On how much is purple jeans 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: the piece you reach for on a rushed morning is the one that was worth the money.