The short answer on Open Edit Shorts: pick one anchor piece, keep the palette to two colours, and let the shoes decide how formal the whole thing reads. Repeat one element, a metal, a texture or a colour, and an outfit looks deliberate. One piece should lead and the rest should stay quiet; two competing pieces read as an accident. Inseam is the whole decision. Two inches changes who the shorts are for. 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: ALT Swim's Livia Shorts - White at $84, and altswim.com's Rhinestone Livia Shorts - White at $84. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. 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, Detoure's House of CB - Lounge Shorts - LG (Like-New) ($40) 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 13 brands, $30 to $174, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. eddiebauer.com's Women's Softened Legend Wash Relaxed Shorts at $30 is the low-risk way in, and amandauprichard.com's Jeremiah Shorts at $174 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On open edit 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: the piece you reach for on a rushed morning is the one that was worth the money.