simcha, seeing you haven’t received a full answer to your original q, i would add that it has been conjectured that the current black and white look was adapted from the chassidim with whom the litvaks came into contact with basically for the first time after the war in the u.s. It’s possible that they borrowed the concept of a “Jewish uniform” to seperate from the goyim which until then was a purely chassidish hashkafa. The medrash about lo shinu es livusham apparently had a different meaning for the centuries of litvishe and (some) sfardishe communities that dressed essentially like their neighbors. I was told that R Aharon Kotler did not create this look but did not disapprove bec of the possibility that it was a good idea (shev v’al ta’aseh adif)
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