The Chasidim simply didn’t change the way Yidden went for centuries and millennia. Like Shuali pointed out, the Litvish also went with long flowing peyos in front of the ears originally. Including the Vilna Gaon, etc. But in the prewar years things got weaker in both peyos and dress in general. Litvaks also used to all wear a long rekel and many even shtreimals. But starting in the mid to late 1800s the goyishe authorities in Russia, which controlled Lithuania until almost WWI, forced the Yidden to stop dressing very overtly as Yidden. The Chasidim resisted but the Litvishe rabbonim allowed some changes due to the shas hadchak.
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