As the thermometer approaches zero - from above - a phenomenon sets in that was unheard of just a few years ago.

At least not under these conditions.

Great studies have been written about phantom pain, drawing on the trauma of World War I that injured millions and what emerged from it in the literature and art of the 1920s: a whole new way of perceiving and representing it.

The pain is there, the part of the body it is affecting is no longer there.

It can be seen in the paintings by Dix and Grosz, and can be read in “Berlin Alexanderplatz”.

In recent years, research has uncovered a lot about how our brain shapes how we perceive ourselves and others.

And that you can switch them off and transfer them.

That's roughly how you have to imagine the sudden shivering in your ankles that inevitably sets in on a winter morning, say around 7:30 a.m., while you're waiting on a crowded platform for the U-Bahn or S-Bahn.

Dressed in winter boots, gloves, anorak.

And in the icy wind, possibly still between black ice and piles of snow, there are pairs of white sneakers with turned-up denim cuffs all around.

In between: bare skin.

No bad weather, just improper clothing

It sets in involuntarily, the great phantom shivering.

A strange pain.

Your ankles turn cold at the sight of all those bare two inches of legs willingly exposed to the elements.

A whole generation no longer owns a single pair of sensible socks and has unceremoniously declared summery, casual card-up fashion as the all-season uniform.

In the belief that, apart from a few minutes outside, the heat is on everywhere, as usual.

The old saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing, also contained trace elements of the hint that unintelligent clothing allows conclusions to be drawn about those who are wearing it.

But a turning point may be approaching: gauntlets for wrists and ankles, which were briefly all the rage in the 1980s, are announcing themselves as a fashionable revenant.

You've recently seen them on youthful legs again, somehow reminiscent of "Fame" or "Flashdance", where leg warmers were just as much a part of the look as the T-shirts with frayed sleeves.

Who knows: when we have overcome the optical shortening of the legs due to dubious wool masses after the phantom shivering, maybe the good old knee socks will make a comeback.