I typically think of this subreddit/community as something not for me, but I took a look just now at what you personally are doing with it.
First off, the content is more general, in a good way, than I expected. It's not just all expensive, more formal, traditional office clothes.
Second, the comments really show off the bad side of Lemmy. If you aren't interested in the content, move on and don't crap all over for people that would be interested. You're trashing a place you don't like and leaving negative comments there forever instead of leaving the place as you found it. That's bad manners IMO. Anyone new coming to the community is going to think it's always a negative space. The people that do this are probably the same ones who complain about overactive moderation and can't understand why they get banned or blocked so often.
I feel Blaze would be right in clearing up some of this stuff. I think a lot of you have mods nervous to do their jobs, and it's allowing Lemmy to become worse. In a fashion group, there's plenty of room for discussion and debate, but coming in, saying why are you wasting time on stuff I don't care about over and over, and then moving on isn't constructive and should be removed if you aren't adding to conversation. No one in any community cares about those types of comments.
Third, I'm not interested in "fashion" as it is typically thought of. I don't care about looking trendy. I'm a large person, and feel most clothing isn't made for me. I'm also hot year round, and layers and accessories typically make it feel even worse. Buuuut, one thing I think you could look into is being the place for something that typically annoys many other people about a different set of communities!
The Buy It For Life groups get a lot of questions about things like "what are some BIFL pants/socks/shoes" and the same people chime in every time "clothes are wear items, not BIFL!". Perhaps you can be the place for those conversations. Stuff that looks decent, but also holds up and is a more timeless look, not fast fashion or trendy throwaway clothing.
Those are my immediate thoughts. I'll have to sub and check out the place more. As usual, I think you're doing good work, but honestly without some more aggressive assertive moderation, I can't imagine much growth due to toxicity.
I personally just didn't know about this community until this post, I think one of Lemmy's issue is discovery of new communities, the weekly trending post helps a bit, but I wish we had a better directory of communities like how sub.rehab did
I liked browsing the R counterpart for inspiration but otherwise I'm not too much into fashion, I'm still wearing shirts from high school
That article was the main one I read before my other response to you and formed most of my opinions. I was surprised the article itself was better and more helpful than I'd have thought from the source it came from. The blame is on the Lemmy users, not you, for that. They're using Lemmy wrong, not you.