The short answer on Alo Airbrush Splendor Dress: pick one anchor piece, keep the palette to two colours, and let the shoes decide how formal the whole thing reads. Proportion does more than colour: volume on top wants something narrow below, and the reverse. Repeat one element, a metal, a texture or a colour, and an outfit looks deliberate. A dress that fits the shoulders can be taken in anywhere else. One that does not, cannot. 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: Liverpool Los Angeles's PETITE SHORT SLEEVE SHIRRED BUTTON FRONT WOVEN DRESS at $60, and Retrofete's Enza Dress at $348. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Check where the waist seam sits on the model against your own proportions. Lining is what stops a cheap fabric reading as cheap. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Let the dress be the loudest thing you own that day. A belt turns a shapeless dress into a deliberate one. From the second group, Wild Oak Boutique's Esmarie Maxi Dress ($82) 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, dresses, 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 13 brands, $14 to $348, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Cole Haan's Women's Argyle Casual Crew Socks at $14 is the low-risk way in, and Retrofete's Enza Dress at $348 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On alo airbrush splendor dress 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.