One of the few upsides of abandoning your adopted hometown and moving across the country is that you suddenly have the right to demand that all of your friends clear their schedules in order to find time to see you. Which is how I found myself seated at Sushiden, across from my extremely busy friend Zareen. Zareen is a book editor who has no qualms about showing up at work in a long red maxi dress and platform sandals. (Maybe exuberant color is a thing amongst book editors: My brother, also an editor, can often be found in outlandish shades of Bonobos pants, like teal and lime green).

But I digress: Zareen was wearing what was probably a beachy dress. But this dress’s summery nature was completely obscured by the fact that she had layered a tidy white buttondown (tied at the waist and tucked) and a printed scarf over it, fall-ifying the whole outfit. While I am very handy with a blazer, a cardigan, and an unbuttoned oxford (I’ve been known to effectively layer all three simultaneously), I’m not particularly inventive with layering dresses. I might adopt Zareen’s tied and tucked buttondown trick, but her look also got me thinking that I really should add a cropped sweater to my repertoire. The upside of a cropped sweater is that its shrunken proportion makes your lower half look even longer in comparison. Since I’ll be wearing it with long, billowy dresses, I want one that’s fitted (to counter all the volume below). Clearly, by these selects, I’m also having an ombre moment. Any thoughts about which one I should get?

clockwise l-r: CROPPED ANGORA DIP-DYE SWEATER, $118.00, Topshop; BIRD BY JUICY COUTURE CHUNKY DIP-DYE SWEATER, $378.00, Neiman Marcus; WREN DALLAS CROPPED SWEATER, $378.00,Saks Fifth Avenue; CROPPED DOUBLE V-NECK CROCHET SWEATER, $32.94, Old Navy.