Shabbos 146 has some discussion about the issue. The kids/young rabbanan give aq silly answer – why Babylonian T’ Ch (at least they acknowledge that there are some!) wear special (nice, Rashi) clothes: because they are not “bnei Torah” (I presume it means that people do not see them as such for their behavior is not special as of “bnei Torah”). Awaken R Yohanan corrects them that they are in galut and, thus, need to show to people that they are learned by externality. It seems from this that T’Ch in EY were not dressing like that and also that if everyone dresses special, then it defeats the purpose of separatding T’Ch from the rest.
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