The short answer on What Goes with Navy is below, and the honest version is that it depends on two or three things rather than one. 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 dress that fits the shoulders can be taken in anywhere else. One that does not, cannot. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is shoulder fit, length and how the fabric moves. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Beyond Nine's Juno Navy Hickory Stripe Denim Jumpsuit at $148, and SAME LOS ANGELES's Poplin Mini Dress (Navy White Polka Dot) at $380. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Check where the waist seam sits on the model against your own proportions. Lining is what stops a cheap fabric reading as cheap. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

A belt turns a shapeless dress into a deliberate one. Let the dress be the loudest thing you own that day. From the second group, ripleyrader.com's Charcoal Sweater Knit Boat Neck Top ($78) 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, tops, 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, $78 to $525, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. ripleyrader.com's Charcoal Sweater Knit Boat Neck Top at $78 is the low-risk way in, and CAMI NYC's Palermo Cotton Maxi Dress Navy Plaid at $525 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On what goes with navy 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: one considered purchase beats three hedged ones.