New York- So what was that woman thinking when she crossed 181st St. in a snowstorm – without her shirt?

“It was exhilarating. I didn’t really notice how cold it was,” aspiring model Margaret Kaiser, 20, said after seeing her bare back in yesterday’s Daily News. “It was really wild and really fun.”

Kaiser, a Fashion Institute of Technology student from Ohio, was thrilled at the pictures from her first topless shoot – and glad to give her career some, um, exposure.

“I was trying to look like I was looking at something, like I was just walking down the street” in Washington Heights, she said. “Other people didn’t know what we were doing. It was really playful.”

That was the point, said photographer Jordan Matter, 38, who shot Kaiser for his ongoing project, “Uncovered: Celebrating Women in New York City.”

Inspired by the reaction to Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction,” Matter is photographing topless women in everyday settings all over the city – from Central Park to Grand Central Terminal.

“A lot of people walk right by and don’t even notice,” said Matter, who hopes to turn his images into a book.

Kaiser wasn’t planning on posing topless for Matter when they met for the first time Tuesday – but within 15 minutes, the sudden snow squalls made for an irresistible backdrop. She said she was too focused on posing to pay much attention to the reaction – though one man kept saying out loud, “Is this a dream?”