What was the cause-and-effect for the Boston tea party

They didn't dress up. This is part of the fable. The Boston Tea Party was a protest of the lowering of the cost of the British tea by the government and the East India tea company who had gotten a bail out from the crown in 1773. The smugglers in the colonies found the Dutch tea that they sold was higher in price than the British tea, so they staged the Boston Tea Party and others in harbors in the colonies (Hamilton was one of the largest smugglers in the colonies and a founding member of the Son's of Liberty). The cost of tea also went as far back as the Navigation Acts and the restricting of trade to and from the colonies passed from 1650-1733. Tea was also taxed in 1767 in the Townsend Acts.