By Patty G.

When I reach Olivia “Tina” Torres by phone on a Thursday night in March, she’s in Fort Worth, just home from a 16‑hour day on set of “Dutton Ranch,” a “Yellowstone” spin-off from Taylor Sheridan, which is filming in Ferris, Texas, just 20 miles south of Dallas. She apologizes for being late — caught by a train, dinner still waiting — and laughs when I tell her she’s lived a million (awesome) lives. She’s grateful for every chapter: touring the world, managing bands, wrangling wardrobes for Hollywood’s biggest names and doing it all with her family by her side.

Torres is both a film truck costumer and a tour manager — two dream gigs that most people would kill to land just one of.

I first met Torres through my older sister — they were classmates, fellow cheerleaders and even fellow sorority sisters. I was lucky enough to tag along with my sister (she’s cool as hell) and her crew in high school (Ysleta High School), which meant that when Torres started inviting her to backyard shows here in the Lower Valley and throughout El Paso, I got to go too. Torres was one of those people everyone knew: gorgeous, sharp, hilarious and never too cool to let a goofball like me hang around.

Torres’ whole family radiated that same spark: creative, kind, effortlessly cool. So yeah, this isn’t just her story; it’s a family legacy stitched together with grit, laughter and a whole lot of awesomeness.

The Truck Life

Torres’ “office” is often a 54‑foot trailer packed with racks, washers, dryers and endless rails of wardrobe. She preps every costume, delivers it to each actor, tracks duplicates, maintains continuity, cleans stains and documents it all. “So I basically manage the truck and all of that,” she says.

Torres says as a truck costumer, she acts as the liaison between the costume office, where most fittings, shopping, aging (basically where all the magic happens) occurs, and Set World, where all the final touches and decisions happen before going on camera. “Ultimately, I’m responsible for the continuity of the costumes and materializing the designer’s vision,” she explains.

Sometimes she’s an ager/dyer, distressing clothes or toning down colors to match the scene. “Maybe this action (that the actor is) doing is not being friendly to whatever they’re wearing and you just find every single way imaginable to rig something so it’s pretty or what have you,” Torres says.

Preparing for each movie or show involves a methodical breakdown of the script, she says. She takes note of every detail, from what each actor wears and what each moment demands, anticipating costume changes, action sequences or practical needs like duplicates for fight scenes and then aligns those insights with the designer (which she might be familiar with or she might not meet until the first day on set). By the time production nears, preparation shifts into motion: fittings begin, essentials are sourced (from socks to rain gear) and the workspace is stocked with everything imaginable, from jewelry kits to stain removers (“Stain removers galore!”), all to ensure that when filming starts, no detail catches the team unprepared.

Torres says she takes pride in being able to remove stains or providing small touchups on clothes. “I do like to think I’m usually in the pretty high percentage of getting stains out,” she says matter of factly. “I often have a lot of crew members coming to me like, ‘Oh, can you fix that?’ You’re kind of always fixing something for somebody; cleaning or a quick little repair.”

(Here’s where I will take you down a clothes’ maintenance rabbit hole: Torres says Dawn dish soap is a good option for a variety of stains and fabrics and she says to dab and always have a paper towel on the back side of the stain. “You need something to transfer the stain to.” And do not put anything in the dryer until you know the stain is out. We maybe went into a little too much detail about the removal of stains because I am a mother, but also, maybe I’m just a generally messy eater. And now back to the story.)

Her first film was Year One with Jack Black and Michael Cera — a baptism by fire and great times. “It was so much fun. It was fabulous,” she says. “It was one of my favorite films to have worked on. … I dressed background, which I wasn’t supposed to do as a PA, but it was just fabulous and I got to dress people in biblical things and make this and make that.”

Though it was an amazing experience, that first set taught Torres how challenging the film industry can be. One day she was on set for 21 hours. “I remember thinking, ‘How is this humanly possible? I’m going to die,’” she laughs.

Since then, she’s worked on films like Django Unchained, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Where the Crawdads Sing and Jurassic World. “We filmed the park sequence at the literal abandoned Six Flags out in New Orleans East — that was wild and bizarre,” she says.

While rubbing elbows with, or rather dressing the elbows of, Hollywood’s biggest stars is a perk of the job, the really memorable parts come from seeing the magic happen or seeing how the crew comes together to figure out how to make what seems impossible come to life on the big screen.

“Sometimes just being on set, you see the whole thing come together,” she says. One memorable moment, she says, was watching the effects team work with her team to bring Machine Gun Kelly’s fire suit come together on Project Power. 

Saying Yes, Taking Chances

Torres didn’t go to film school. She didn’t study fashion. She just said yes. “I have done absolutely nothing to do with all the things I went to school for, but that’s probably also why I fell into these fields and why they’re so great for me,” Torres says. “I always tell people I think the hardest part about the film industry is getting your foot in the door and once that door opens for you, it’s up to you to keep yourself relevant.”

Her opportunity to get her foot in the film door came when she was on tour in California with a friend’s band. They were sleeping in a minivan or on whomever’s sofa was available to them. Her brother, Polo — or Omar, as he’s also known — was already working in the film industry in Louisiana. He told her there might be an opening in New Orleans and that if he gave his bosses her name, she’d have to be ready if they called her. A week later, she drove from San Francisco to Louisiana, broke but hopeful. “He was like, ‘Do you want to do this?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, sure, why not?’”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a job waiting, but persistence paid off. A production assistant job finally opened. It was the lowest-paid position. Still, Torres was determined to make it work. As a PA, Torres was doing minor things like getting coffee or taping down seams. As a non-union worker, she wasn’t allowed to do costumer work. Every now and then, though, she was able to get some hours in with union costumers. “I always loved those moments. I was like, ‘I don’t care what they ask me to do; I will do anything and everything — I wanted to learn it all,’” she says.

Though her film experience started in Louisiana, her film career can be traced back to El Paso, when Glory Road was filming here in 2005. A friend talked his way onto the crew, then brought her sister, Sonia, into the fold. Then Sonia brought in Polo. Then Polo brought in Olivia. The siblings built their careers together — props, set dressing, costumes — and they’ve weathered COVID, strikes and the industry’s shift overseas. They still collaborate when they can, though those opportunities are fewer nowadays.

The Family Thread

Torres’ family is practically El Paso royalty. Her uncle is Tito Larriva — yes, that Tito, of Tito & Tarantula and The Plugz. Her brothers played in local bands, her family hosted backyard shows and she was in tune with the local music scene from a young age. Her brothers Saul and Bardo also found their way into film or music. Through her and her family, we all got a front-row seat to the city’s music scene.

Tour management came almost by accident. Torres had been helping friends’ bands on the road — booking shows, making merch, keeping things running — without realizing she was already doing the job. On one tour in L.A., the band stayed with Tito. They’d call him to ask if they could crash and invite him to their shows. He noticed their merch spread out and asked, “Who made this merch for you?” “Oh, we did,” Torres told him. “Who booked these shows?” “We did.”

“He couldn’t believe that everything was done on our own,” she says.

When his touring manager got hired by Sony, Larriva knew who to turn to. “He just called me one night and said, ‘Hey, do you want this? You want to be my tour manager?’ And I was like, ‘I wouldn’t know what to do,’” she says. “He said, ‘What do you mean? That’s what you do already.’”

She agreed and admits she felt inadequate but grew into the job. And her sister came along too, making it yet another family affair. “We kind of tagteamed it,” she says, explaining that she handled the tour management side, while Sonia covered the merchandise part. They both had to cover the little things, like printing the band’s itinerary in hotel lobbies.

“Honestly, it was so special to me because it was family oriented,” she says. 

In retrospect, it was an adventure to travel in Europe with her family and friends and it opened her eyes to different cultures. “Travel is just the best thing for anybody. I think you learn so much from it. I think you are more empathetic,” Torres says. “I think, generally speaking, most people will be a better person for it. And I’m so grateful for all the places we’ve gone.”

But managing those tours also helped her grow professionally and personally. “I do thank my uncle. I feel like him doing that, at that age for me, was absolutely life saving.” 

Being a young woman having to deal with older men who were sometimes quite disrespectful helped her grow into a more confident person. Torres remembers instances when she had to collect their money from the venue.

“Sometimes I had to fight for the money and say, “I’m not leaving. Until you find every penny, I am not leaving,” she says. “It’s cheesy, but in a sense, it gave me a voice and I really feel so much gratitude for that.”

Some tours saw them on the road for eight or nine months, something she says she’s not a huge fan of. At the same time, the road beckons. “You can’t live with it, but you can’t live without it,” she says. “It’s an endless cycle. But I know for me, I need to be home. I need downtime and I feel the same about film.”

Where Torres will be in the next five to 10 years is still up in the air, but she hopes it will still be in the film industry. “My job is very physical. Our hours are intense. … You have very long hours because we’re first in before the actors to get their clothes in and we’re last (to leave). The hours are brutal.

“So I don’t know if I will still be on set, but I definitely still hope to be in film costuming. … I want to keep it open,” she says, explaining that maybe she’ll even explore the possibility of doing a short film. For now, she’ll do what she can to spend more time with her partner of 20-plus years and exploring hobbies like millinery, she says. And eventually, she’d like to settle down back in El Paso.

Olivia “Tina” Torres’ story feels like a blueprint for creative persistence — proof that the most enduring careers aren’t built on glamour but on grit, curiosity and family. From El Paso’s backyard shows to long nights in Fort Worth, she’s carried the same spirit that shaped her beginnings: courage to say yes, work hard, stay humble.

Her journey reminds us that the people who do the work behind the scenes — the ones rolling racks, fixing seams and fighting for every penny — are the ones who make the magic possible. And for Torres, that magic has always been stitched with a little bit of home.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Catch “Dutton Ranch” on Paramount Plus starting May 15: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/dutton-ranch/ 

“Dutton Ranch” Official Trailer: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/video/ALVE01KM5YTE1SEMYTJ435SBJ63PVD/