The short answer on What is Garden Party Attire 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. Lining is what stops a cheap fabric reading as cheap. 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: Kule's The Terry Dress - Cream at $80, and Lisa Says Gah's Emmy Shirred Midi Dress - Cocoa Check at $200. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. 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. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Let the dress be the loudest thing you own that day. A belt turns a shapeless dress into a deliberate one. From the second group, st-agni.com's Wool Cap Sleeve Top - Umber ($419) 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, dresses, 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, $65 to $600, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. kennethcole.com's Pull On Barrel Leg Pant with Slash Pockets at $65 is the low-risk way in, and lagarconne.com's Abbie Cashmere Short Sleeve Polo Sweater at $600 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On what is garden party attire 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.