Nice knees?

Early on in the film, Conrad is riding to school with his friends. They see a girl they know walking to school (played by Elizabeth McGovern of Downton Abbey fame). They are making typical teen boy remarks about her a$$, and one kid is about to shout “nice a$$” at her but Conrad stops him so he shouts “nice knees”.

Ok, that’s the scene. The thing is this girl is wearing four layers of loosely draped thick wool clothing. She could hide ten a$$es under the skirt alone, nevermind the big wool overcoat which could hide ten more. And as for her knees, they are totally covered up by her wool stockings, that big ol’ skirt and some mighty high cloddy leather boots.

What are these boys seeing? A wool sasquatch? I don’t see no nothing to be shouting out the window about except her face, which has always been and still is quite pretty. Weird costume choices for this scene, unless “wool fetish” was a thing back then.