The short answer on Free People Gallivanting Skort: 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. A lining is the difference between a skirt that hangs and one that clings. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is waist fit, length and lining. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Cult Gaia's NADINE SKIRT - DARK JAVA at $218, and Summersalt's The Silky Luxe Short Beach to Brunch Wrap Skirt - Main at $65. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. A lining is the difference between a skirt that hangs and one that clings. A skirt that fits the waist can be shortened. One that fits the hip cannot be let out. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Match the volume: full skirt, fitted top, and the reverse. From the second group, Cult Gaia's MARLINE KNIT SKIRT - BLACK ($368) 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, skirts, 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 skirts here from 14 brands, $30 to $368, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Monday Swimwear's Cartagena Micro Skirt - Black Lace Crochet at $30 is the low-risk way in, and Cult Gaia's MARLINE KNIT SKIRT - BLACK at $368 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to Free People Gallivanting Skort without any single purchase being compulsory. 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: if you would not buy it at full price, you do not want it on sale.