/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>10852200
nayrt but a lot has changed since I started wearing lolita again after my hiatus. A lot of that has to do with the pandemic. Such as the effect on shipping prices and local comm meet ups, but also lots of new people trying to join lolita fashion during and after the pandemic. On one extreme end there are literal teenagers wanting to wear lolita, but expect to get stuff for fast fashion prices (because otherwise "classism"), and for every brand to go up to a US size 20 (because otherwise "fat phobia"), and this generation has forgotten how to do their own research and is incapable of using google, so they much rather ask their beginner questions to anyone who seems like they might be in lolita fashion but they also expect for answers right then and there on a silver platter.
Over the last 5 or 6 years lolitas have started moving from fb to other platforms to a degree where some fb comms are (almost) entirely dead right now. Currently the second hand market has been sucked dry (might have something to do with not only the pandemic but also the war, energy prices, etc). People on the longest self imposed no-buys I've ever seen. Brands only releasing mediocre stuff or lower quality versions/slightly altered designs of former releases. My local comm and most comms are pretty boring right now imo because people mainly seem to talk about 2 things (taobao shit, AP). Misinformation continues to run rampant (and impossible to control) on tiktok where every teen with an AliExpress mass produced dress can hop on their soapbox and claim to be a resource/authority on lolita. If my memories of lolita were wiped and I saw what gets the most attention online I would probably not want to wear it.