"By 2017, I was folding up a doll's wardrobe of Reformation outfits every time I packed for a trip." Jia Tolentino wrote that line in The New Yorker in November 2019, in a piece that also describes opening a bachelorette-weekend suitcase to find four near-identical Reformation minidresses. Four years earlier, Vogue had already described the Los Angeles label, which Yael Aflalo launched in 2009, as having "thoroughly infiltrated Hollywood's cool-girl crowd."

That is the reason this list exists. When one label dresses everyone you know, the dress stops feeling like yours. The labels below make the same kind of thing, an easy feminine dress or a good blouse you would wear with jeans, but each one has its own founder and its own idea of how a woman should look on an ordinary Tuesday.

I ranked them on three things: how often the cut works on a real body, how the fabric looks after a season of washing, and how clear the point of view is. Rouje comes first, then Sézane, DÔEN, RIXO, Christy Dawn, Faithfull the Brand, With Jéan and POSSE. Day dresses come first, then evening, then the separates, because a blouse and a skirt are where most people actually make the switch. After the ranking come a hundred more dresses from DÔEN and the labels I would shop beside it, sorted by type: slips, babydolls, smocked and tiered, tea dresses, halters, knits, shirt dresses and lace.

The rest of the row: Faithfull the Brand's Essenia knit in an espresso stripe and its Signe maxi in a bordeaux floral, RIXO's Clarice in brown floral crepe with lace trim, and POSSE's Bowie, a heavyweight linen halter midi in vanilla and chocolate.

Fitting-room test: sit down in it. A day dress that rides up or pulls across the hips when you sit is not a day dress.

What I would skip: the linen halter for a cold office. Save the Bowie for a warm lunch and wear the knits all winter.

What decides this is shoulder fit, length and how the fabric moves. Everything else is preference. Two from the day row show the range: Rouje's Gabin wrap dress and POSSE's Bowie, a heavyweight linen halter midi. The first is the easy entry point; the second has a more considered feel. Lining helps keep a fabric from reading thin. Check where the waist seam sits on the model against your own proportions. Materials and finishing matter, but they are not the only measure of a dress.

A belt turns a shapeless dress into a deliberate one. Let the dress be the loudest thing you own that day. From the evening row, Christy Dawn's Esmeralda is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The separates come next, blouses, knits and skirts, for the decisions you make after the main one, and after them the dresses sorted by type. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

From here on the list is sorted by type rather than ranked, with a hundred more dresses from DÔEN and the labels I would shop beside it. Slips first. In September 1993 Kate Moss, then 19, wore a sheer silver slip by the designer Liza Bruce to the Elite Model Agency's Look of the Year party at the London Hilton, and years later she said she had no idea it was see-through until the pictures ran the next day. The slips in this row are the daytime version of that dress.

DÔEN leads most of these rows because the sisters Margaret and Katherine Kleveland have been cutting this kind of dress since they launched the label in Los Angeles in 2016. The Bethilde and the Zoelle are the brand's take on a 1990s slip, with ultra-skinny straps and a bias-cut skirt, and the Zoelle adds lace at the square neck. The Oleander is a 1930s bias cut that grazes the ankle, the Lise in nectarine jacquard is a favorite of Katherine's, and the Lorraine is sandwashed silk satin with embroidered appliqué flowers. The Luciane is a vintage nightgown shape with a lace yoke, and the Corina is bias-cut magenta satin edged in peach lace.

Outside DÔEN, the RIXO Alberta is pink jacquard with black lace at the neckline, the POSSE Tabitha is a long yellow slip, the LoveShackFancy Nirelle is gold satin and SIR.'s Cecile is a butter print with a ruffled hem. Kamperett's short silk slip and its green Theodora, Co's brown satin slip with black lace and the dark By Malene Birger Pascale are the plainer end, and the Mirror Palais mini is red chiffon with a ruffle at the hem.

Fitting-room test: buy a bias-cut slip in your real size. Sizing down makes the bias pull across the hips, which is the one thing a slip should never do.

What I would skip: the minis, if you want a slip for work. A midi or maxi with a thin knit over it covers more days.

The babydoll began as lingerie. The American designer Sylvia Pedlar shortened her nightgowns in 1942 to save fabric during wartime rationing, and the name arrived later, with the 1956 film Baby Doll starring Carroll Baker. Pedlar disliked the name and never used it.

DÔEN's versions go back to the 1960s, when the shape left the bedroom. The Vida is pale blue silk satin with a high bateau neck and floral lace at the neckline and hem, and the Cicely is peach satin with lace at the neck and full-length sleeves. The Maevie, Penelope, Suzette and Paloma are floaty silk georgette: the Maevie has Edwardian pintucks, the Penelope has scalloped lace and tiny blue satin bows, and the Paloma is fully lined in viscose. The Avalon has a halter-style angled neckline, and the Sirona is cotton voile in the Narcissus Bloom floral with ladder lace and a grosgrain ribbon at the square neck.

Tularosa's Anya in blush and its tiered Sydney in soft pink are the shortest, the POSSE Veda is a plain vintage white, and Leset's Arielle is mustard crepe, the easiest of the lot to wear to an office.

Fitting-room test: lift your arms over your head. A babydoll should move with you and fall back to the same length.

What I would skip: the sheerest georgette if you hate planning what goes underneath. Start with the lined Paloma or the cotton Sirona.

Smocking is farm clothing. From the early 1700s English waggoners and carters wore the smock-frock, a long linen overshirt whose fullness was folded into narrow pleats and held with honeycomb stitching that still let it stretch. By the end of that century it was the common outer garment of farm labourers across the Midlands and Southern England.

Merlette, which Marina Cortbawi founded in New York in 2016, is known for that kind of hand finish, and its Stijl is black cotton voile with a smocked bodice and a dropped waist. Matteau, started by the Australian sisters Ilona Hamer and Peta Heinsen as a swimwear label, makes two shirred cotton dresses here, a white drop-waist maxi and a brown midi that buttons down a plunging neckline.

DÔEN's Quinelle takes its cues from the brand's Quinn dress, in black organic cotton poplin with an elasticated smocked bodice, and the Ischia, one of its Favorite Characters, is white voile with flock dots and a smocked waist. The Emmaretta comes in the Garden Bloom floral DÔEN first printed in 2022, and the Benoit is tiered ramie in a print taken from an antique dining textile. LoveShackFancy's Hannelore in parlor rose is the most tiered of all, ruffle after ruffle to the floor.

Fitting-room test: turn the bodice inside out. The elastic rows should be evenly spaced with no puckered gaps, or the smocking will go wavy after a few washes.

What I would skip: a smocked bodice if you are between sizes on top. The tiered skirts forgive more.

Henrietta Rix and Orlagh McCloskey met at the London College of Fashion, spent a couple of years as fashion buyers, and left in 2015 to start RIXO from a flat in west London. McCloskey has said she designs every print by hand, which is why a RIXO tea dress is recognizable from across a room.

The Corina is a short tea dress in the Amelia Bouquet floral, the Kylie is the same easy shape in a beige leopard, and SIR.'s Lilia is a long-sleeved mini in a small print with ruffles. DÔEN's full skirts come from the 1950s. The Rivelle is structured Italian poplin in deep dahlia with petite puff sleeves, the Donielle is silk satin in the Wildflower Bramble print with a fitted bodice and a full skirt, and the Valerine puts the archival Hollyhock Hills print on silk-viscose twill with a sweetheart neckline. The Rhodia and the Clea are cotton voile, one with puffed short sleeves and a high neck, the other a sundress with a fitted bodice.

LoveShackFancy's Latasha is a black square-neck mini that flares from the waist, Faithfull the Brand's Martina is a blue and white check, and Matteau's gathered-bodice midi and the Mirror Palais Dinner's at 6 are the long cotton versions.

Fitting-room test: find your natural waist before you look at the print. If the seam sits above it, the skirt kicks out like a child's party dress.

What I would skip: stiff poplin if you sit at a desk all day. It creases across the lap, and the voile and silk ones recover by lunch.

The halter most people can picture is the ivory dress William Travilla made for Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch in 1955: two pieces of pleated fabric meeting behind the neck, a band under the bust and a pleated skirt. The arms, shoulders and back stay bare, which is still the whole point.

DÔEN's halters look to the 1970s. The Ismerie is silk satin with a cowl neck and the Windswept Tulips floral along the hem, the Zilda is silk-viscose twill in a paisley taken from a 1970s opera scarf and ties at the back, and the Noemie is the slinkiest, in a periwinkle foulard. The Rosetta is black Italian poplin lined in voile, with a criss-cross back and hidden mother-of-pearl buttons.

Anna October, the Ukrainian label its designer founded in 2010 on her pattern cutting, makes the Kelly, a pale blue maxi with a long scarf at the neck. Éterne was started by the stylist Chloe Bartoli, and its cotton-modal halter maxi is the simplest dress in the row. Faithfull the Brand's Bianca is a white midi, Tularosa's Etta a brown mini with a keyhole, With Jéan's Kesha a blue dress with an uneven hem, and Matteau, STAUD and Rosie Assoulin cover the cotton, linen and seersucker midis.

Fitting-room test: wear it for ten minutes before you decide. If the strap digs at the back of your neck, the tie is carrying the bust, and a structured bodice like the Rosetta's will be kinder.

What I would skip: a halter you would need a new bra for, unless you already own the right one.

In 1962 Sonia Rykiel was pregnant and could not find anything she liked, so she had a shrunken, finely ribbed sweater made by Italian knitters. The poor boy sweater put her on the cover of Elle, and Women's Wear Daily later called her the Queen of Knits. A good knit dress does what that sweater did: it follows the body without gripping it.

Ulla Johnson founded her label in New York in 1998 and started with five pieces in a friend's boutique. Her Ida is long-sleeved jersey in a dark paisley and the Solene is claret jersey with ruffles at the shoulders. Aje, which Adrian Norris and Edwina Forest started in Australia in 2008, makes the olive Ribiona, a knit bodice over a fringed skirt, and the Elodi, a cream knit mini with a flared hem.

Altuzarra's Mitchell is a pale knit midi and its Minamoto is navy with gold buttons down one side. By Malene Birger's Rowen and Beatriz are long and dark, THE GARMENT's Tanzania is black organic cotton pointelle, and DÔEN's Ema is the same pointelle idea as a body-skimming 1960s mini. House of Dagmar's V-neck maxi is a wool blend, Zulu & Zephyr's mini is an ombré stripe, STAUD's Veronica is printed, and RIXO's Aly is a chocolate mini with a high neck. Faithfull the Brand's Cecile and Doris are striped knit maxis in bordeaux and navy.

Fitting-room test: look at the shoulder seams on the hanger. If the knit has already stretched there, it will keep growing on you through the day.

What I would skip: a pale, fine knit for long days at a desk. The darker, denser ones keep their shape longest.

Halston's model 704 came out in the fall of 1972: a shirtwaist dress in Ultrasuede, cut like a man's shirt but with the buttons starting at the breastbone and a separate belt you could tie however you liked. It was machine washable, so you could pack it, wash it and wear it again.

The belted ones here follow that idea most closely. Cara Cara's Sawyer is an olive cotton midi with short sleeves, Co's is black cotton poplin with a matching belt, and Rosie Assoulin's Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is plaid poplin in wisteria. Cleobella's Signe is an ivory mini belted at the waist, and Aje's Lyra does the same thing in washed denim.

Merlette's Rosaura is a white cotton mini that buttons all the way down, the Anemos LA dress wraps and ties at the side, and Matthew Bruch's sage linen mini has an oversized collar and a V neck.

Fitting-room test: button it and sit down. If the placket gapes across the bust, size up and use the belt to take in the waist, which is what Halston's separate belt was for.

What I would skip: the white minis for a long day of sitting. The Sawyer and the Co are the two I would wear to work.

Grace Kelly's 1956 wedding dress, designed by Helen Rose at MGM, has a bodice of 19th-century Brussels rose point lace, its motifs cut from the original ground and pieced together so no seam shows. Most people still think of lace as bridal because of dresses like that one, so this row leans toward lace you would wear to dinner.

DÔEN's Ophélie is vertical panels of cotton lace, fitted through the bodice and flaring to a midi, and the Costine is a 1930s lace gown with a dropped waist. The Wilhelmine is sheer floral stretch lace with a bateau neck and long sleeves, the Cornella alternates shirred ramie with lace panels in a black 1950s mini, and the Gwyneth is a lace gown with a cape that drapes over a low back.

Third Form, which Merryn Kelly started in 2014 after design jobs at Zimmermann and Shakuhachi, makes the drawn-in Poetry maxi, the tiered Lovelight and the Visions, a buttercream lace maxi with a V neck. Sea's Gracelyn is a pink lace slip and its Hilda is pleated lace, and Ulla Johnson's Coco and THE GARMENT's Cata are silk maxis trimmed in lace. Aje's Ophelia and Tularosa's Janis are the short ones, Alexis's Soleya is yellow cotton lace and LoveShackFancy's Massie is ivory crochet lace to the ankle.

Fitting-room test: plan the layer under it before you buy. A slip close to your skin tone makes sheer lace look deliberate.

What I would skip: ivory lace to a wedding, for the obvious reason.

I would not buy all of them, and neither should you. A Sézane blouse is a gentle way into this list, while a DÔEN slip or a RIXO tea dress makes sense if dresses are already what you reach for most days.

Read as a set, they give you what people went to Reformation for, an easy feminine dress, without every friend owning the same one. Nothing here is included because it is famous; judge each piece by what it does in a wardrobe. Pay attention to what touches your body, and keep the rest of an outfit simple. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Dresses, Jumpsuits and Dresses and Occasion Pieces, Ranked.