A 76-year-old style influencer and grandmother was mocked and body-shamed after she posted a video of herself modeling a sleeveless midi dress.
“It’s not the first time this has happened, but this one surprised me," Candace Cima tells TODAY.com. “People have such outdated notions about age-appropriate fashion, and that needs to change."
In the clip, which Cima shared on several platforms including Facebook, she is seen posing in a brown knit dress that exposes her bare arms. At one point, Cima, who has 11 grandchildren, shows how the piece looks when its paired with a boxy sweater.
Cima never imagined her Amazon try-on would trigger outrage.
“Great color and style; however, you must wear the sweater over it. The dress is not attractive on you without the sweater over it,” one person wrote in the comments.
Added another: “Not suitable for the arms after a certain age.”
Other feedback included:
- "For the sake of men who have to see you in public, know what dresses compliment you and which ones don’t. Body hugging form fitting dresses on a woman over... 50, is not visually appealing in any form.”
- “You are too old for this.”
- “No, it’s too young for you. No disrespect.”
- “Looks much better with the top on. It is not flattering on an older body otherwise.”
- “No, older women should not wear form-fitting dresses like that. It shows off a sagging butt. Looser fitting would be much better. You’re very attractive but that dress is not for a sagging body or skin.”
Though hundreds of people came to Cima’s defense, the content creator who lives in Ithaca, New York, says she didn’t give the nasty remarks a second thought.
“It’s perfectly appropriate to have wrinkled skin at 76, and I’m not ashamed of it,” Cima tells TODAY.com. “Sometimes I want to respond, ‘Should I cover my face too, because I have wrinkles there?’”
Cima launched her style blog “Life in My 70s” in 2019, after she noticed there was a need for pro-aging influencers. She now boasts more than 400,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
“I saw an opportunity to talk about how to dress as you get older. Women have been conditioned to think they need to cover up because that’s what their mothers and grandmothers did,” Cima explains. “We need to shift the way we think about age. We don’t need to adhere to these old ideas in a modern world."
Lately, Cima has been noticing an increase in younger followers. She says many of them send her appreciation messages.
“I get a lot of letters that are like, ‘I’m so glad I found your page because I was terrified of getting older,” Cima says. "What I tell people is, 'Aging is great. Everything you have learned your entire life is now there for you. You are now the wisest that you are ever going to be. Embrace it and be proud.'"
Stylist Samantha Brown tells TODAY.com that women need to unlearn some harmful fashion rules. She believes the unkind feedback on Cima’s page was simply “people projecting their own insecurities.”
“I think she looks terrific,” Brown says. “I always tell my clients, ‘If you’re going to show skin, choose one area to highlight.’ So if you’re showing arms, wear a longer hemline. And that’s exactly what (Candace) did. Her dress is completely appropriate.”
“There’s no reason that women of a certain age think that they suddenly have to walk around covered from their neck to their ankles,” Brown continues. “That is such an antiquated idea.”