You can see similar sights in Greenpoint, Brooklyn - which is NYC's Polish ghetto.
The explanation, imho, is a particular form of sexism that is wide spread in Eastern Europe, which views "taking care of one's appearance" as an artifice designed to make person look sexually attractive to others. Only young and unmarried women can do that publicly. If older women do it, they are seen as "sluts," and if men do it - they are seen as gay. In fact, men do not have to do anything "artificial" to be attractive - they just "are." That pertains not only to clothes, but personal hygiene as well.
Wojtek