The short answer on Cactus Jack Shorts: 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 side zip sits flatter than a fly front. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is inseam, rise and fabric weight. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Suzie Kondi's Shkip Shorts in Cotton Poplin at $275, and manymoons.com's Poppy Ombre Sweater Shorts - Yellow at $44. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Inseam is the whole decision. Two inches changes who the shorts are for. A side zip sits flatter than a fly front. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Longer shorts want a fitted top. Shorter ones want volume up top. From the second group, Suzie Kondi's Tefta Shorts in Velour ($225) 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, shorts, 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 shorts here from 12 brands, $44 to $495, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. manymoons.com's Poppy Ombre Sweater Shorts - Yellow at $44 is the low-risk way in, and suziekondi.com's The Zef Ribbed Shorts in Cashmere at $495 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On cactus jack shorts 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: pay for the thing that touches your body and economise on the thing that sits on top of it.