“unless they started wearing clothes that were not kovod habrios the yeshiva bochrim should dress like the university students ”
Here is the question how do you define “clothes that were not kovod habrios'”?
If you really want to know; the Charedi clothing that they wore prior to that, was way beyond what you are inclining to say (it was similar to Chasidim, long fully bearded etc) . White shirts and dark pants is accepted “stylish” in the business world as well, (though it will depend if its properly fitted or not..)
Asides that, Torah was then in a situation that it was looked down upon, (hence, most bachurim in The Mir couldn’t find any shiduchim. No typical girl wanted to marry a ben torah, then emerged ‘Bais Yaakov’s’ that solved part of that issue…) So a solution had to be found to raise the bar..