There is one item that turns up every autumn in the same role: the blazer meant to rescue the transition between summer and October. This year it is linen, sand-coloured, in a linen and cotton blend - and it costs 59.95 euros at Zara. That is neither news nor a discovery. What is interesting is that stylists propose it as one piece for three completely different looks, which means the question is not whether to buy it, but how many times you will wear it before you forget it.

The cut is classic: shaping darts, a discreet shoulder pad, a lapel, a nipped waist, front pockets and buttons. The effect being chased is an hourglass silhouette - which in plain terms means everything underneath looks tidier than it is.

The first combination is the most predictable and the safest. Matching straight-leg trousers with a pleat, Zara again, 39.95 euros. Over that a two-tone raffia bag, sandals with a slim heel, a 9.99-euro chain with a pendant and square sunglasses. Head to toe in one tone - the formula that works in the office and at dinner, and that nobody will comment on. That is the whole point.

The second goes fifties. A white pleated midi skirt from Massimo Dutti, down from 79.95 to 29.95 euros. A printed silk scarf, silver hoop earrings and pale blue leather ballet sneakers. Here the blazer is no longer a business piece but a frame around something more romantic. Same item, different story.

The third is the most relaxed: straight-leg cotton bermudas with embroidered details, red leather ballet flats with a bow, small artisanal earrings and a leather bag with two handles. This is the Saturday afternoon combination that wants to look unplanned, and is not.

Now let us look at the value honestly. The blazer is 59.95. The trousers 39.95. The skirt 29.95. That is around 130 euros so far and it is the part of the story any of us can pull off. But the same combinations also include a 545-euro bag, 159-euro earrings, 150-euro sneakers, 160-euro flats and a 205-euro bag. The entire "one blazer option" in its full version easily passes a thousand euros.

This is not a complaint about the blazer - it genuinely is a good piece for the price. It is a reminder of how the genre works. They sell you the cheap part and show you the expensive one. And then you wonder why your version does not look the same as the photograph.

Which is why the most useful sentence in this entire list is the one nobody writes: take the blazer, keep your own trousers and your own shoes, and check whether it works. If it works with what you already have at home, it is worth it. If it needs six more new things to work, then you are not buying a blazer - you are buying the whole photograph.