I feel so depressed with the lolita situation in my country rn. We are a small European country and our body count in my city is 5 people per meetup, out of which you can expect only 3 to have decent coords each time (including me and my best friend)
I've been in this fashion for 8 years now, and I long for a decent sized, decently dressed community so much. I wouldn't need something gigantic like the UK comm either, just 10 people, wearing actual lolita coords.
We used to have that when i first joined, but then people moved on, and new people can't seem to commit to even the most basic coord.
There is this one girl that only has 2 BL dresses that she can't coord to save her life, and this other one that even has moitie, but pairs it with the most horrible shitty blouses, cheap wigs and makeup that is melting on her face. And another 1-2 that show up in casual clothes.
I am the mod of my community and I've tried numerous things, from going to nicely decorated cafes that don't require a reservation, so that people don't feel obliged to pay a lot, lolita secret santas, to even hosting a swap meet where I made sure to include older brand pieces, accessories and mooks for dirt cheap to entice people, to no avail. I am talking BTSSB jsks in good condition for 30 euros.
Occasionally, we will get an infulx of weeaboos, that think ero cosplay lolita is a thing, try to join, and we are basically polite and try to encourage them, but they never commit once they find out they have to either splurge some money or do some basic research to get good deals, and that their Misa Misa cosplay is not an acceptable coord.
Shit, I know that my country is relatively poor by European standards, but we have a considerable BJD community, which is a much more expensive hobby, so this shit is not an excuse.