Styling Bottega Veneta Scarf is mostly a question of proportion, and the rest follows from there. 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. Dimensions decide how it ties. Under 70cm square will not knot properly. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is fibre, dimensions and drape. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Otte's Alux Lurex Scarf Burgundy at $440, and Anine Bing's York Scarf Leopard - Pearl White at $150. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Dimensions decide how it ties. Under 70cm square will not knot properly. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

A scarf is the cheapest way to change an outfit you are bored of. From the second group, Mother Denim's The Scarf It Down - Flaming Hot Cheetahs! ($165) 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, jewellery, 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 12 brands, $99 to $528, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. motherdenim.com's XiRENA Fonda Scarf - Pink Ombre at $99 is the low-risk way in, and Otte's Roger Scarf Cashmere Scarf Rainbow at $528 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On bottega veneta scarf 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.