GH:
I am afraid your advice of trying to keep something that is individual is risky. Yeshivos have been competing on levush for years now, and their dress codes are frequently cited as their identity or their status in contrast to other yeshivos. I am an anomaly that I conform to others, but consider the entire subject of levush a cruel joke. No, it should not be. One’s externals can impact positively on the internal. But is sadly does not as much as it once did. I suggest that my making rules, codes, and standards out of levush, the chashivus and its effects were tripped of it.
It might be interesting to check some of the biographies of Gedolim of yesteryear. The talmidim in several of the yeshivos in Litta would be expelled for entering today’s yeshivos with their garb. Even among the chassidishe kehilos, the levush was far from standard. I believe many of us here have experienced Yidden who are truly spiritual who lack the rigors of the yeshivish levush, as well as the opposite.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Nor a bochur by his levush.