Agree. NY fashion driven by the Wall St. crowd

I lived in different states and had a traveling jobs in the manufacturing industry for years before moving to NYC 3 yrs ago for a job on Wall St, so I have seen a lot. This observation is accurate. In most places in America, people just don't care.

In New York people are a lot more brand concious, and I see people in the finance industry (not everyone, but many of them, especially investment bankers or others who are "front office", i.e. client facing) are willing to spend a fortune to "dress the part". It is determined by the nature of the financial service industry, you got to look accomplished and successful then people are willing to do business with you. It is the culture here.