You know, that's a fair question, and I believe the answer is mostly "yes." Having said that, however, I think there's still some truth to the localized nature of this issue...if you can call it an issue.

I worked a long contract at Xerox in Downtown Rochester and encountered a must higher than usual number of fashion renegades: suits and ties, old-school business dress. As a consultant I was required to wear a suit, but the relaxed the requirement after 6 months.

Funny - I was asked "what are you all dressed up for?" about half as mush as I was asked "why you don't you dress up any more?"

In the end, going to khaki's and polos was how I discovered the answer to this whole issue. A coworker was growling about some woman who, frankly, looked fantastic. I asked what the problem was, and the first response was "she's a goddamn analyst. Makes like ten bucks an hour. Totally overdressed."

I admitted it was likely true, but asked "what's the big deal?"

"She makes the rest of us look like slobs."

Oh. Ohhhhh. NOW I get it!

The question "what, you going out for a hot date" really means "what, you trying to make even more people notice that I look like a goddamn slacker junkie homeless loser by getting all tarted up, you bitch/son of a bitch?"

Consultants are sometimes chameleons. When you're invisible, you belong amid the crowd you're in. I make it a habit to dress to the level of my contract, with the minimum of business casual - if the room is filled with t-shirts and jeans, I'm in Khakis and a collared shirt, but if the room is filled (on that very, very rare occasion) with suits, I'm wearing one of them.

By the way, Sandstormz60: I've had about 20 of the 30 years I've worked in technology with banks. I knew a lot of tellers, and I was in LA, which means I knew a lot of people who'd had guns pointed at them and one who was shot dead.
I dated one, and she fought tooth and nail for comfortable ("sensible," she called them) pants and shoes at the both the teller line and the platform. She won, too. Her reasoning: "it's harder to pistol whip me if I'm running my ass off, which is a LOT easier in a pair of slacks and flat shoes."