LOL the "hoodie code" is 10x stronger than any suit code.
If you're even the slightest bit concerned with anything anyone is wearing, then you need to focus on something else.
Tell a suit wearer that they should dress casual tomorrow and they'll say OK. Tell a geek they have to wear a suit tomorrow and they'll freak out. Now tell me who cares more about clothes?
The suit wearer also has a closet full of casual clothes
The casual wearer will not have a line of suits - thus his freak out
What is the payscale between the both vs type of work and hours?
Would be great to get a map of all this
A hoodie-wearer at FB or Apple probably out-earns the majority of suit-wearers at Goldman - it is definitely not about money, just about attitude.
Sorry but it's highly unlikely.
Almost every VP I know in NYC/LDN makes less than a fresh grad at Google in the bay area.
I think it's mostly tribal signalling, " I am not a suit" kind of thing. Although never having to deal with dry cleaning is an incentive, too.
Things aren't quite as loose as you seem to think. If you want to see where the boundaries are, start gradually dressing more and more informally, and note when you start drawing criticism from your manager and senior coworkers. I expect you'll get more attention than you want if you were to come to work shirtless, say.
Honestly, one of the things I absolutely love about tech/Silicon Valley is nobody cares at all how you dress.
Although, I noticed the sale force offices unofficial uniform:
Brown shoes brown belt designer jeans and some dry-cleaned blue shirt and a blazer...
"Look at how casually uniquely I conform to the office uniform!"
Not judging, I just thought it was funny...