The short answer on Shoes with Star: 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. A flat with no heel counter will slip at the back no matter the size. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is toe box, sole flexibility and heel counter. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Veronica Beard's Prilla Woven Leather Loafer at $180, and Boden's Chunky Cleated Sole Loafers-Raw Umber at $220. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. A flat with no heel counter will slip at the back no matter the size. A leather sole looks better and grips worse. Rubber if you actually walk. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

A flat with a longer trouser needs a visible ankle or the leg disappears. From the second group, Alohas's Lautan Cream Leather Ballet Flats ($180) 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, sandals, 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 pieces here from 13 brands, $60 to $600, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. thefryecompany.com's Cooper Trainer at $60 is the low-risk way in, and Norma Kamali's BALENCIAGA BLACK LEATHER BELT BUCKLE PUMP at $600 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to Shoes with Star 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: pay for the thing that touches your body and economise on the thing that sits on top of it.