The short answer on What Do Artists Wear is below, and the honest version is that it depends on two or three things rather than one. Lining is what stops a cheap fabric reading as cheap. Check where the waist seam sits on the model against your own proportions. 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: Detoure's Peppermayo - Radiant Energy Cowl Back Mini Dress - Blue - XS (Gently Used) at $20, and Roller Rabbit's Hydrangea Gingham Bristol Dress at $248. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. Lining is what stops a cheap fabric reading as cheap. Check where the waist seam sits on the model against your own proportions. 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, Roller Rabbit's Floral Crochet Moxie Cardigan ($258) 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, coats and jackets, 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 15 brands, $20 to $695, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Detoure's Peppermayo - Radiant Energy Cowl Back Mini Dress - Blue - XS (Gently Used) at $20 is the low-risk way in, and simkhai.com's Quinn Zip Front Wool Jacket at $695 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to What Do Artists Wear 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: buy the one you can picture using this week, not the one you are saving for later.