Phryne Fisher’s Fabulous Frocks Outfit Recap: Season 2, Episode 7 - “Blood at the Wheel”
The seventh episode of season two has nine total outfits, with a variety of practical travel outfits, fashionable at home outfits, and a period-accurate racing jumpsuit as well, showing off the multitude of ensembles a well to do and active lady adventuress would have available to her.
The final outfit of “Blood at the Wheel” (Season 2, Episode 7) features the reappearance of Miss Fisher’s sophisticated home ensemble of her gold beaded cocktail bolero with a wide black band of silk tying it together over her black camisole and paired with her silk faille pants and gold heels.
Her beautiful lace bolero is crafted from gold beads on a black net worked onto a floral design and is actually made of leftover fabric from Costume Designer Marion Boyce’s wedding dress. She’d always held onto the scraps and had just enough to create this cocktail bolero. Underneath, she wears her black camisole with small scalloped edging. We’ve seen this near exact outfit before in 2x02, with the addition of her banded sheer illusion blouse.
Phryne pairs this with her classic black silk faille pants, gold heels, and elegant jewelry as well. The large silver filigree necklace is an original 1920′s piece also owned by Marion Boyce, with a crystal drop pendant and small crystals in the chain of the necklace as well. It’s been seen three times so far, in 1x03and twice in1x12. Her brass swing earrings have been worn multiple times, and pick up on the metallic colors in her bolero and necklace beautifully.
The eighth and penultimate ensemble of “Blood at the Wheel” (Season 2, Episode 7) is Phryne’s white driving jumpsuit, worn with a cream scarf, embroidered with an ‘H’ in honor of her friend Gertrude Haynes, crochet driving gloves, and a cap with driving goggles.
Her racing clothes are accurate for the time, designed primarily to protect the driver from dust and grit from the road. Open air automobiles often required scarves and special gloves to keep the motorists warm while their car was at speed, with advertisers specifically pushing car owners to have pairs of “gloves for driving, gloves for wear when not driving, [and] gloves for working around the car.”
TheUltimate History Projectnotes: “Advertisers also recommended that women, who wore gloves on most occasions, adopt special driving gloves when riding in or driving a car. They were not, needless to say, told to buy gloves “for working around the car,” although many young women did know how to repair their own cars, simply because early automobiles were so unreliable.”
Caps and goggles with metal frames and glass lenses were used to protect the driver from flying pebbles, insects and other debris, with many racing caps designed with goggles built in.
Although uncommon, women racers certainly did exist in the early age of automobiles. Violette Morris was a national champion boxer who often defeated men, competed in a multitude of sports, include cycling and auto racing in the 1920s, where she won the 1927 Bol d'Or 24 hour car race. Hellé Nice was a French model, dancer, and competed in multiple Grands Prix and other races, won the Grand Prix Féminin in 1929 and earned herself the nickname “the Queen of Speed” and a bright-blue Bugatti that she competed in.
In short, Phryne’s outfit and participation in the car racing is period accurate and a nod to several extraordinary female motorcar racers.
The seventh ensemble Miss Fisher wears in “Blood at the Wheel” (Season 2, Episode 7) is her classic red plaid tweed jacket and skirt, along with two different red hats, and red leather gloves and purse.
Phryne’s luxurious red plaid jacket and skirt is a great example of 1920′s tailored suits for women. The fur-trimmed jacket is cut in straight lines with double-breasted buttons and a matching belt across the hips. The belt buckle itself is a brass imprint of a Pharaoh’s head set against a black background. Her knee-length plaid skirt is made of the same fabric and has two box pleats in the front.
We’ve seen this suit jacket and skirt combination twice before, in both 1x04and1x05, both worn with the red felt flower cloche she first wears in Jack’s office.
Interestingly, Miss Fisher wears two different red hats with this outfit. The first one is her red cloche with flower detailing created with both feathers and felt worn as she consults with Jack about the Adventuress’ Club records. This cloche is one of Phryne’s favorites, appearing in twicein 1x01,1x02,twice in 1x04,1x05,1x06,1x09, and here.
Her second hat, also made of a red felt, is a cloche with a bonnet-like brim that frames her face well and has three ribbons in cream, red, and black wrapping around the top of the hat, complementing the three interlocking cream, red, and black felt circles. It was worn in the opening scene of 1x05, but has changed a bit since then. In 1x05 and on Mandy Murphy Millinery’s website, it has one set of plain circles on each side of the hat. Here in 2x07, the ribbons are closer together and the ends are flared at the edges, and both sets of circles have been moved to the right side and decorated with a series of black beads across the interconnecting lines.
She accessorizes with matching red leather driving gloves and a red leather handbag, as well as her bronze triangular earrings, seen on the right side of the Costume Exhibition photo.
Miss Fisher’s sixth outfit of “Blood at the Wheel” (Season 2, Episode 7), features her classic silk cardigan with green brooch, her button-up white blouse, white pocketed pants, and black double strap heels.
When she confronts Pepper in her home again, we see Phryne still wearing her white button-up blouse with standing collar and high waisted silk faille white pants. The blouse has fitted cuffs and self-covered buttons, along with a white camisole underneath. She adds her familiar cream cardigan to transform it to a comfortable at-home outfit. This elegant cardigan was created from a length of silk rayon fabric costume designer Marion Boyce had owned for years, and only decided to cut it up when she began to design for Miss Fisher. The cream cardigan has appeared ten times so far in the series; 1x01,1x02,1x03,1x04,1x05,1x06,1x08,1x10, and twice here in 2x07.
She accessorizes with her black double-strapped heels, clear teardrop earrings, and her distinctive green sea anemone brooch. The brooch is made with tubes of ombre chiffon that allow it to float and move freely. She’s worn this eyecatching brooch four times, once before in 1x02, where she has the exact same outfit, and then twice with a silk scarf in 2x04and2x05.
