The short answer on Gucci Slingback Flats: pick one anchor piece, keep the palette to two colours, and let the shoes decide how formal the whole thing reads. One piece should lead and the rest should stay quiet; two competing pieces read as an accident. Proportion does more than colour: volume on top wants something narrow below, and the reverse. Anything over 8cm needs a platform or you are buying a taxi. 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: Guizio's Joni Slingback at $218, and manymoons.com's Mercer Slingback Flats - Antwh at $251. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. A pointed toe adds visual length but takes half a size. Anything over 8cm needs a platform or you are buying a taxi. 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, J.McLaughlin's Reese Suede Slingbacks ($150) 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, flats, 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 11 brands, $78 to $920, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Manymoons's Devon Slingback Sandals - Gold at $78 is the low-risk way in, and Otte's Victoria 100MM Slingback Black at $920 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On gucci slingback flats 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.