Chelsea Eyre bundled up on a recent frigid day in a hooded alpaca and wool coat with a down liner, boots, a scarf and gloves.

But below her rolled-up blue jeans, her ankles were bare.

“It just looks bad to wear socks,” said the 55-year-old Bayer AG executive, who lives in Montclair, N.J. “You break the whole line of the outfit.”

Some of her friends are cool to her cold-weather choice. “You know how thin your skin is down there?” said Hoover Herrera, who thought she was reckless when he first saw her exposed ankles in frigid air. “I wouldn’t last 15 minutes.”

Bare ankles were once a rare sight in the winter, sported mostly by sockless prep-school students in boat shoes. Now, cropped pants, leggings and short boots are hot looks even in winter, driving fashion-conscious men and women to subject their ankles despite this season’s Arctic temperatures.