The short answer on Ray Ban Rb4420: 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. Frame width should match the widest part of your face, not your eye spacing. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is frame width, lens depth and nose fit. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Joseph's Atlas Aviator Sunglasses at $195, and otteny.com's Evan Sunglasses at $455. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Frame width should match the widest part of your face, not your eye spacing. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Frames are the accessory people see first. Buy the shape, not the logo. From the second group, colehaan.com's Women's Edgy Cateye Sunglasses ($79) 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, frames, 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 frames here from 17 brands, $12 to $455, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. shopakira.com's NOT ME SUNGLASSES at $12 is the low-risk way in, and otteny.com's Evan Sunglasses at $455 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to Ray Ban Rb4420 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: the piece you reach for on a rushed morning is the one that was worth the money.