Fashion Designer, Author, and Teacher Olivia Echeverria (known professionally as Olivia Bis) has lived a colorful and fascinating life. From her upbringing in East Los Angeles to her rewarding fashion career in Hollywood, Bis has experienced success, career transitions, and an enduring love for teaching and clothing design. Last October, Bis released her new book titled, A Memoir: From East Los Angeles to Beverly Hills, in which she goes into detail regarding her family roots, Mexican heritage, upbringing in East LA, and career as a designer and owner of the LA area boutique (Bis & Beau) during the 1970s with Priscilla Presley (Elvis’s then-wife). Speaking of her memoir, Bis felt the need to write her life story and share it with her grandchildren and the public as it’s fascinated others through the years, “I thought you know; I need to document this, so I went in doing so and started to write it. My sister and I had also been getting involved in ancestry, so we were able to trace a lot of our relatives,” Bis explained. In her book, Bis goes into detail about her mother’s childhood and provides memorable family stories ranging from her father’s health decline to finding her own path as a young woman. She also credits her mom for her creativity and talent as her mom exhibited those same qualities.
Reflecting on her adolescence in East LA, Bis has only lovely memories, “I had a wonderful experience in East L.A. We always had these family parties, and we just had a beautiful experience. Most of the neighborhoods at that time were basically Jewish, Japanese, and Mexican. So anyway, it was just a wonderful childhood,” Bis said.
When high school came around, Bis wanted to become an actress, but her path took a different turn after she started designing her own clothes, “We didn’t have much money for clothes, so I started to make my own because I had to,” she said. She adds, “Then I started to become really creative and would be wearing my own skirts and tops and my classmates loved them.” Soon after, Bis started a small side business and began selling to people which also included designs for bridesmaids and quinceañera dresses. With the desire to learn more about making her own patterns and sewing she then enrolled in Los Angeles Trade Tech College which completely changed the course of her career path, “I didn’t realize I had the knack for it,” Bis recalls. In one of her earliest memories out of East LA, Bis recalls feeling discouraged at her prospects of relocating to Hollywood. She explains, “When I was around 17, I went on [a] blind date and we went to Hollywood, and that was the first time I’d ever been out of East LA. We went to one of those coffee houses in the 60s where people would smoke cigarettes, drink coffee, and listen to bongos. When I came back, I remember we lived on a hill and remember standing on our porch looking over the city and looking up at where we had just come from in Hollywood. I thought, how am I ever going to get there from here? So, I was so depressed but within five years I was designing clothes.”
Throughout the 1960s, Bis was able to find her way through various jobs at department stores and managing boutiques throughout the LA area where she gained business experience along with designing and sketching her own patterns, “At that time we were coming out of the 50s where it was gray and white colors. And we were coming into the hot pinks, bright greens, purples and bright orange and pink and I loved it,” recalls Bis. At various times, Bis had to navigate through challenges such as others taking credit for her designs. Specifically, boutique owners she worked for, but after gaining experience and more knowledge she was eventually able to own and operate her own women’s fashion boutique which she named The Olivia Bis Boutique.
Throughout her career as a boutique owner and fashion designer, Bis had the amazing opportunity to encounter some of Hollywood’s most-known celebrities in the 60s and 70s as they often came into her boutiques. At times, Bis even designed for special occasions and took orders from the likes of Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Victoria Principal, Sharon Tate, and Diana Ross. Other celebrity encounters include Patty Duke, movie heartthrob Steve McQueen, and Mexican civil rights activist Cesar Chavez whom she met at an event as well as numerous actresses from daytime soap operas who would frequent her boutiques through the years along with the wives of Hollywood writers, directors, and producers. Around 1968, Bis had her first encounter with Priscilla Presley, who was married to Elvis at the time, “I was working at the shop and had to go home to get something. When I came back, there was this beautiful young woman standing in front of my shop, and I had left a note on the door and apologized to her for not being open. So, I opened the store, and she was just so very bubbly with long auburn hair and very petite. She was wearing this big diamond ring and I wondered who she was married to. She had been talking about her baby girl and being a new mom and I was a new mother too, so we had a lot in common.” The two would become friends over the next short years with Priscilla buying into the boutique which saw the name change from “Olivia Bis Boutique,” to “Bis & Beau.”
The boutique operated on Robertson Blvd before the switch to Beverly Hills. In her memoir, Bis goes into further detail regarding their business partnership, Lisa Marie and Courtney’s friendship (Presley & Bis’s daughters), and how the business evolved through the 1970s including making appearances on the Mike Douglas Show for promotion of the boutique.
The business certainly experienced success with Bis designing beautiful dresses, tops, and skirts, while using a variety of fabrics such as silk, chiffon, cotton, and lace to create the stylish, popular, and sophisticated looks for the time. For their boutique design, Bis says they went for a specific look, “We wanted it to look Victorian, and it was just really beautiful. We had so much fun buying the antiques for the shop and while Priscilla was working on the interior of the shop I was working on the clothing.” As Presley and Bis started their new venture together, Presley was in the midst of splitting with Elvis and wanted to support herself without utilizing the Presley name when it pertained to the boutique. Bis explains more in her detailed memoir. Although Bis never had the chance to meet Elvis, she did see him in concert at The Hollywood Bowl and was able to meet his father Vernon Presley while picking up her daughter from Elvis’s Los Angeles area home. Speaking on his live performance Bis recalls, “Oh, my God, he was amazing and magical, he really was.”
After a few successful years together in their partnership, Presley and Bis parted ways which at that time Presley was becoming more of a celebrity in her own right away from Elvis. Speaking of The King of Rock n’ Roll, during Bis & Beau’s operation, the boutique garnered hundreds of Elvis fans which at one point became a bit overwhelming for Bis as she explains in her memoir. Finding further notoriety though, the Oliva Bis designs were also featured on models in the magazine Better Homes and Gardens in 1978. The memoir provides photos during this time along with snapshots of celebrities Bis encountered and memorable family snapshots.
Since Bis and Presley parted ways years ago, the two have stayed in touch periodically and recently spoke after the passing of Lisa Marie (Presley’s daughter) whom Bis remembers fondly as a child, “I wrote to her (Presley) and wrote her a letter of how I felt and saying that Lisa had so much more to give. And that she had accomplished so much in her young life and that she was so talented. I was just so sorry for her loss. Within a few hours, I got a response from Priscilla, last year.”
Looking back, Bis is grateful for all the amazing opportunities she’s been able to experience, and over the years began teaching English. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Fresno State University and is currently an adjunct instructor for a local college in California. She has continued to design clothes which are currently selling on eBay under Olivia Bis Designs, and also has an online store titled ‘Fun Learning for All’ on TeachersPayTeachers.com where she provides interactive PowerPoint presentations, videos, and practice workbooks for all grades.
Advice for other Latinas and young women out there who are in pursuit of their goals, Bis says, “I seized every opportunity that came my way. I was never afraid to try. I just did it and utilized opportunities that came to me, but sometimes you have to make your own opportunities. I really think educating yourself in the field that you want to be in, whether it’s artistic, you need to know your passion, because I learned how to make patterns, I learned about fabric, and really learned my craft. And you know, your failures are great, you learn from your failures. I certainly have because they are lessons, and they can help you do better going forward and you won’t get so discouraged.”
Read more on Olivia’s fascinating career, celebrity encounters, and family stories by purchasing her memoir here, available via Amazon.
Visit Olivia Bis Designs on eBay here.
Find Fun Learning for All here.
