Patricia Mok’s Wonton Mee Dress & Her Epic Halloween Costumes Are The Inspiration You Need This Halloween

“I wanted a costume that, once I wear it and people see me, they’ll go, ‘She is wonton mee!’” Patricia Mok exclaims excitedly over the phone. When the 47-year-old Fly Entertainment artiste dressed up as wonton mee for a friend’s birthday party, she never thought that the picture of the dress she posted on Instagram would go viral. Seriously, the compliments, shares, likes and memes coming fast and furious. The theme for the party was ‘You are what you eat’, so Pat decided to dress up as her favourite nosh: wonton mee.

To make her wonton mee dress dreams become a reality, Pat, with a strong idea of what she wanted to dress up as, approached costume designer Theresa Chan. The Costume Shop founder usually charges about $500 per outfit, but “she gave me a good discount”, reveals Pat. The end result: huge slabs of char siew made out of sponge, orbs of wontons and vegetables fashioned out of fabric, and strands of noodles cut from yellow yarn.

In case you haven’t noticed, the actress-host takes dressing up for theme parties and Halloween very seriously, going all out with her costumes (scroll on for a look at her stellar track record below). Which is why it’s only right that we pick Pat’s brain for costume ideas, with Halloween one month away. And we’re not referring to those basic fluffy animal onesies from Taobao. We’re talking a cool, one-of-a-kind costume that no one else has. You know, like a wonton mee dress.

8 DAYS: Was wonton mee always your first choice when you first got the party invite?
PATRICIA MOK: (Laughs) Yes, all I could think about was wonton mee. I love noodle dishes — bak chor mee, prawn mee, laksa, mee rebus, mee soto. But I think wonton mee is a better idea visually. If you do prawn noodles, then it’s just prawn lor. Visually, it’s not so interesting. When I was thinking of ideas for my costume, I knew it had to be local food. But I was complaining to my friend, ‘How to find costumes of local food?’ I mean, I could’ve gone online to get costumes like M&Ms and all that, but it’s not my favourite food what! I did find a costume online of a Chinese takeout box. But why would I want to buy a takeout box? I can make it myself with cardboard!

Photo: Instagram/@wecreatemagicmoments

What was the process of making it like?
I engaged costume designer [Theresa Chan] to do it. We met up and I told her my idea. Actually, I wanted to use real food initially. I wanted to borrow a vacuum seal machine from my friend, buy real char siew, and seal it up [to make the costume]. But after chatting with her, she suggested this instead, and we didn’t have to use real food. (Guffaws) The noodles are made out of yellow yarn. I do knitting so when I thought of noodles, I immediately thought that we could use yellow yarn. She used sponge for the char siew, and painted the sides red. She used fabric for the chye sim and wonton. And I completed the look with the chopsticks in my hair. We conceptualised it about three weeks before the party, but the making of the outfit itself took about a few days or a week to do.

Is it easy to wear and, er, go to the loo?
Yes, it’s very easy to wear and very light ’cos the char siew is sponge. The vegetables and char siew are separate pieces and I had to put them together myself when I put on the outfit, but I didn’t need anyone to help me.

Photo: Instagram/@wecreatemagicmoments

We notice you put in a lot of effort to dress up for theme parties and Halloween.
I take theme parties very seriously! (Laughs) One thing I was very clear about for the wonton mee dress is that I wanted a costume that, once I wear it and people see me, they’ll go, ‘She is wonton mee!’ A lot of the time when I dress up for a theme party, people immediately know what I’m dressing up as. I didn’t expect for the char siew on the dress to look like real char siew. The other day I went to buy wonton mee, and all the ingredients was ‘bai swee swee’ (Hokkien for arranged nicely), just like my dress!

How often do you actually eat wonton mee?
The day after I posted the picture, a lot of people told me they went to have wonton mee. I wasn’t craving for it, but because everyone was talking about it, I ended having it too. I make wonton mee at home too, and if I’m making it, I can eat it for the next three days for both lunch and dinner. But my record for eating wonton mee is back when I used to work in the American Express office — I ate wonton mee for one month straight.

Hang on. Every single day for one month?
Yah, every day for lunch and dinner! Even my supervisor asked me why. I replied, ‘Yah, the wonton mee is really good’. If I’m filming at a location where the coffeeshop has good chicken rice, I can eat chicken rice every day [during filming].

Back to costumes. Your Halloween outfits in the past have been quite epic too.
Yes, and I always have back stories for the characters (laughs). Once I dressed up as a bride. I went to the Wardrobe Department at Mediacorp and asked if they had any wedding gowns they didn’t want and sell it to me cheap. So I bought a gown, gloves and a veil. Then I took it to the roadside and asked someone to drive a car over my dress, so that there are tyre marks. Then I splashed blood on it. I did my own hair and make-up as I was quite new then. The story was that the bride was killed in a car accident and was going around the club to look for her husband (laughs).

Can we expect any food-themed costumes from you this Halloween?
I always dress up as ghosts for Halloween. Hair and make-up for Halloween usually takes three to four hours, and usually Andy Lee and Passion do my hair and make-up. Most of the time, people don’t recognise me with all the make-up, especially if I don’t talk. I usually keep quiet when I’m in costume… because ghosts don’t talk, what! But I’ve stopped dressing up for Halloween for many years ’cos it’s more fun when you go out with a group of friends to dress up and go out together.

Photos: Patricia Mok