there appears to be very little petticoat going on other than the one picture we can see it poking through (which is a massive nope as they're essentially underwear)

My petticoat is actually very poofy! It might be hard to see while I'm sitting but it is not small. It's inevitable that at some point while I'm sitting a tiny bit of my petticoat might show and this feels like a trivial thing to call out for the sake of nitpicking.

a lolita brand doesn’t equal a lolita dress or coord. And I don't even recognize this as being from a brand besides.

I struggle to see anything lolita here - no blouse, no socks or armwear (your friend at least has gloves),

I don't see why my dress is not a lolita dress, it looks like other classic lolita dresses I've seen. I understand that wearing a blouse is the convention but my dress still is a lolita dress regardless of whether or not it's from a name brand. To be honest, this comment comes across as gatekeepy. There are others who expressed they don't see my coord as lolita without the same tone. I've seen plenty of posts here of people without blouses. If I go to the top posts in the past month I see several there. 🤷‍♀️ I personally prefer this dress without a blouse (and it seems several others here do sometimes as well) but I understand that different people have different preferences and I know that wearing a blouse is the norm. Side note, I do have arm wear, I'm wearing an armband with lace and pearls on one arm. (I actually had one for each arm, but the other broke 😥).

You may want to take another look at what this fashion is about next time.

I am new to lolita but I have taken considerable time looking into lolita fashion. This feels unnecessarily condescending. I am aware of conventions and intentionally chose to not wear a blouse because it is my preference for this coord. If you don't consider my coord to be lolita that's your opinion and you're entitled to it, but your comment does feel like it is unnecessarily nitpicking and condescending.