The short answer on What is Alt Girl is below, and the honest version is that it depends on two or three things rather than one. Most house signatures were practical marks before they were status ones. Recognition is built by repetition over decades, which is why an imitation of the mark never carries the same weight. Hold it up to the light. Opacity is the thing product photography hides best. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is shoulder seam, sleeve length and opacity. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Dagne Dover's Varsity Logo T-shirt in Onyx, 4X at $45, and Eddie Bauer's Women's Dobby Striped Shirt at $40. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Hold it up to the light. Opacity is the thing product photography hides best. The shoulder seam should sit on the bone, not past it. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

If the top is the point, keep everything below it plain. From the second group, A.P.C.'s Button-down jacket ($225) 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, knits, 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, $30 to $795, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. ronnykobo.com's Sarda Knit Top - Carnation Multi at $30 is the low-risk way in, and Cynthia Rowley's Westward Fringe Suede Jacket at $795 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to What is Alt Girl 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: one considered purchase beats three hedged ones.