Something that I think would help with the ?roleplay/imersion? is to be able to make regular clothes with the stats from armor. Naturally you would have to be able to make the armor, and it would be destroyed in the process, but the clothes would then basically be that armor. I can't see a bad side to this, as it enables customization while still requiring progression. And in the note, let the ?tailoring workbench?(what ever it is that gets used to do the thing) be unlocked early and easily made. Not too much sense in having something like that but only available after being the game.