Name: Cassie Berg
Year: Senior
Major: Apparel Design
Hometown: Prior Lake, MN
If you don’t know UW-Stout student, Cassie Berg, you are definitely missing out! Cassie is a lively, unique, fashionable and just a fun girl to be around. You won’t believe some of the people she knows and the crazy stories she has! I was lucky enough to hear all about this 22 year olds life at Stout, modeling experiences, friends, and amazing internship in California. Oh yeah, and her appearance on MTV’s show, The Hook Up!
HC: You’ve been at Stout for 4 years, what’s your favorite thing about Stout and Menomonie?
CB: I definitely love that everyone knows how to have a good time here, but my favorite thing is probably how small it is compared to a lot of other colleges. Everyone at Stout is all really connected; I feel like Menomonie is just a little town and everyone in college kind of knows each other, so I love how when I go out to the bars I recognize everyone. Also, the way Menomonie looks with the lake, all the antiques, and old buildings is so pretty, especially for me coming from a huge suburb like Prior Lake.
HC: Tell me about your internship in California over this past summer.
CB: It was a fashion internship for a company called Hale Bob, which sells high-end clothing to celebrities and really wealthy people. I originally went out to California just to fulfill my internship requirement, but I ended up working three days a week at Hale Bob and then just had all this free time where I got to do all these fun things and meet all these cool people!
HC: What kind of fun things did you do there?
CB: I went to a really sweet underground Skrillex concert one night and went to a ton of fun beach and rooftop pool parties. I met this super cool girl on a party bus one night and we actually ended up becoming really good friends after that. So, one night the two of us were just talking over Facebook and she randomly asked me “hey do you want to be in a music video with me tonight?” and I was totally down for it, so we just met up that night and went to this music video for Smallpools, which is a band that’s just starting to get pretty popular in California, but they’re nothing huge right now. After that, I found out that my new friend from the party bus knew all these people and had over a million followers on the Internet and is pretty big on YouTube.
HC: I know you were on MTV’s show, The Hook Up, earlier this year, so what was that whole experience like?
CB: It was AMAZING! So, the girl I had met on the party bus was apparently already set up to be on The Hook Up as the main girl who the guy could either choose a date with her or a cool prize, and this other girl and I were her two best friends on the episode. The entire time we were on MTV’s set we were honestly treated like we were real celebrities and it was so cool! We had our own stylist and I even got to help style some of the girls, which was really fun. There was a coffee girl, who was basically waiting on us hand and foot and would get us anything we wanted. We got our hair and makeup done, which looked amazing. So it was just a whole day of filming and nothing was scripted, we just got to be funny and embarrass our friend on TV! It was just a really awesome experience and the guy ended up choosing her over the prize!
HC: Did you meet anyone famous in California?
CB: I didn’t meet anyone crazily famous, but I mainly met a lot of YouTube famous people through my friend that I was on The Hook Up with like Steve Kardynal who’s really famous for his chat roulette Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball parody. I also met Andrew Schulz who hosts The Hook Up and is also on Guy Code.
HC: You also enjoy modeling, so when and how did that start?
CB: It was mainly something I would just do for fun; I’m not really into it as much anymore unless it’s through friends. When I was 16 I was dating a guy who had this huge photography hobby, and so him and I or sometimes my friends too would just have fun and go cool places to take pictures. Then I went online and found all these modeling websites, so I made a portfolio and then all these different people would contact me and ask if I would model for them, which I did and would get paid for some of them and I was even printed for some! But, I started losing interest and got more into fashion, styling, and being behind the camera. Also, it really makes one insecure because you look at real models and notice everything about them, so it was really hard on my self-esteem, but I do want to get back into it a bit for styling and blogging reasons.
HC: I know you were in the Prior Lake newspaper your senior year of high school for making your own prom dress, so do you still make clothing or anything anymore?
CB: I actually didn’t even know I was in the newspaper, that’s awesome! But, I mostly just modify some of my clothes, like cutting things or adding studs or random things like that. Once summer comes and I have more time I know I’ll definitely start doing it, I used to make and sell clothes online to people. I have this friend who made a website called pinkbowcity.com that sells clothing from a lot of designers from Minneapolis, MN, so I sold some swim suits and a skirt on there and made a couple hundred dollars doing that.
HC: Tell me about the Silhouette Spring fashion show 2014 coming up at Stout that you’re involved in?
CB: I’m going to be modeling in it for Addie Gecas who has this really cool collection that’s orange, teal and yellow, so it’s really bright and pretty! I also have my own collection that girls will be modeling too. There are three shows; a student show on May 1st at 7PM for $7 with your student ID, and there’s two public shows on Saturday May 3rd at 3PM for $10 and 5PM for $12 in the MSC. Also, in the ballroom we’ll have this big display of all our collections, so you can see all of our photos, booklets and the work that went into the show and designs.
HC: What other things do you enjoy doing with your time?
CB: Besides styling, I dabble in photography and love doing makeup and hair as well. I also really love going to festivals and concerts; I’m really into music, which is the other side of me that isn’t fashion related. But, after I graduate I’m planning on starting my own style and fashion blog , maybe a YouTube channel with tutorials, and I also want to keep styling photo shoots.