The short answer on Jeffrey Campbell Kitten Heels: 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 pointed toe adds visual length but takes half a size. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is heel height, toe shape and how the weight sits. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Splendid's Vivi Kitten Heel in Black at $129, and Norma Kamali's PRADA LOAFER KITTEN HEEL at $800. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Anything over 8cm needs a platform or you are buying a taxi. A pointed toe adds visual length but takes half a size. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Match the heel to the hem, then stop thinking about it. From the second group, khaite.com's Liria Kitten Heel Sandal in Python-Embossed Taupe ($1080) 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, heels, 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 14 brands, $65 to $1080, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. kennethcole.com's Martha Mesh Cap Toe Kitten Heel Slingback at $65 is the low-risk way in, and Khaite's Liria Kitten Heel Sandal in Black Glazed Leather at $1080 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On jeffrey campbell kitten heels 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.