The short answer on Madrid: pick one anchor piece, keep the palette to two colours, and let the shoes decide how formal the whole thing reads. Check the shoulder seam first; a coat that pulls there will never sit right. A coat you cannot layer a knit under is a coat for one month of the year. Weight matters more than fill number; a heavy coat gets left at home. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is shell fabric, lining and where the hem lands. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: Tanya Taylor's Farah Top at $178, and The Couture Club's CLUB DE SOCI EMBROIDERY SHIRT - BLACK at $129. The first is the considered buy; the second is the one to start with. Check the shoulder seam first; a coat that pulls there will never sit right. A coat you cannot layer a knit under is a coat for one month of the year. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

Buy the coat for the clothes you own, not the clothes you plan to buy. From the second group, Halfdays's Claude Vest ($175) 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 17 brands, $39.50 to $270, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Kenneth Cole's Stretch Lace Front Drape Mock Neck Tank at $39.50 is the low-risk way in, and Leo Lin's Indie Velvet Sleeve Top - Ebony at $270 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. Read as a set, they get you close to Madrid 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.