The communion dresses of a few years ago were much frillier & prettier than modern ones. I used to have many before the fire. I found a couple for $36 each in girls size 14 & 16 almost 4 years ago that fit good. Not as frilly as the old ones, but silky & shear compared to most dresses or Lolita dresses. As pretty as Lolita dresses are, they don't have the look or feel of a nice old fashioned real little girl's dress made for kids.
In my youth, I'd go to thrift shops, goodwill shops, or salvation army stores for my dresses. At a dollar or 2 a dress it was the only thing a high school kid could afford. With all the strange people shopping in those places, & occasionally crossdressers there too, I was less nervous about buying dresses there. Still as a teen boy, I was terrified to buy a dress in a store back then, & my hands would be shaking trying make the purchase.
Many times I'd chicken out & buy something else, or buy something in addition to the girls clothes to deflect some attention to the fact that a little boy in a store was buying a dress. Let's not forget I was small. Even at 16, I was 3 inches shorter than at 20. So at 16 I looked like a 10 or 12 year old boy buying a dress - - not like a typical crossdresser or drag queen they may have seen before.
But the first dresses I bought brand new were communion dresses from JC Penny. Back in those days they had a wide variety of the prettiest, frilliest girls dresses. But those communion dresses they had were the best out of all of them. Being able to fit into girls size 14 & 16 dresses, they had dozens of dresses that I loved which would fit, but the communion ones won out over all of them.
My red dress doesn't look like that but is the Lolita style rahter than a true old style girl's dress. Here's some pix of me that weren't lost in the fire that I didn't purge after I died of the heart attack caused by the flu.
In the first set,
1 - 2008 The Milanoo red dress. Not bad for a 53 y/o.
2 - 1995 Nightwear from a UK lingerie store. Just a little 40 y/o baby back then.
3 - 1995 A B&W security camera shot of my favorite (red) dress, lost in the fire. Still have a white version of it.
4, 5, & 7 - 2013 The Milanoo Dress at 58.
6 - 2013 Under the dress. A tight girdle, tight yellow panties, & pink tights (dark spot at the crotch is a shadow, I didn't mess my panties).
8 - 2013 Communion dress.
In set 2,
1, 3, 4, 5 - 2013 Communion Dress.
2 -2013 Milanoo Dress
6 - 2013 Under the dress.
7 - 2013 Record of weight loss from heart attack & COPD (approx 97lbs.), still sorta fit.
8 - 2015 60 years old. Record of weight loss with COPD. (approx 93 lbs.) But still looking good.