UA News

Cry Baby Couture, a makeup and clothing shop run by a mother-daughter team, offers items that are "girly, glamorous, bohemian and against the grain."

Gabrielle Miller, while studying at the University of Arizona, started a business with her mother that has recently relocated to the campus area. 

Cry Baby Couture, a makeup and clothing boutique, got its start after Miller won the Chanel and Seventeen Magazine Color of the Year contest in 2004.

Geared toward girls who want to get into the cosmetics field, the contest required competitors to create their own color, name it and design a concept around it.

Miller's color, "pleurnicheuse," was chosen from numerous entrees. She received $1,000 and a trip to New York.

The color name - a French phrase that refers to a person who uses tears and emotional manipulation to get attention - means "cry baby" in English.   

Miller, who studied communication and business at the UA and graduated during the fall, became more motivated after her color was included in the 2004 Channel line.

Though Miller and her mother felt something was lost in the translation of the color's name, they kept it to honor the French theme and design behind Cry Baby Couture, which they opened that same year. 

After Miller's success, her mother, Moni Miller - also a UA alumna who studied fashion merchandising and was already in the cosmetics business - decided to start her own cosmetics line.

The Millers used part of the competition winnings to start the business, which has relocated to University Boulevard from the midtown area.

"We wanted to be part of the vibrant shopping district here," said Moni Miller. "It was always our goal to be here."

Gabrielle and Moni Miller design and sell everything from cosmetics and perfume to clothing, shoes and accessories such as rings and headbands.

"It's more fashion-oriented than sexy," Gabrielle Miller said.

Both women have described the line as "vintage-edgy" as well as "girly, glamorous, bohemian and against the grain."

"We're trying to make the store like a jewel box. The ceilings are all done in gold sparkles," Gabrielle Miller said. Many of the Cry Baby pieces, especially the party dresses, are one-of-a-kind creations.

"We have a lot of girls who come to us for dresses for prom and such events because they know whatever dress they get from us, no one else will have it," Gabrielle Miller said. 

The Millers want people who enjoy their line to "have fun with it because we're having so much fun doing it," Moni Miller said. "I want to give people something they will have forever - they'll never get rid of it because they'll love it so much."