The quest for female armour

With every new larp character, it starts all over again: the quest to find armour. What might not sound that hard can actually be quite challenging if you are female, want something that looks like it can actually protect you and want a little variety to choose from.

Showy armour is fine too, if this is what you prefer, but why is it, that there are various versions of  quite showy chainmail with cleevage, but hardly any regular looking options for women? I have spent the past weeks to find chainmail, that could fit my proportions whilst also looking like it could also be actually protective. AND fit a budget. Why can't there be the same amount of variety as there is for the more skin-showing outfits and why is just the term female armour often already associated with something that looks hot rather than actually protective?

It is something, that also occurs in videogames a lot and whilst I do sometimes appreciate the look of super unrealistic fantasy armour, that looks like it cannot properly protect anyone (I always make up the headcanon that the character wearing it is just so great, that they cannot be hit anyways), when it comes down to it, my preference goes with the more knightly looking options:

 Honorable mention the my all-time favourite-number-one-want-to-have/make armour: the DAO Templar gear

Hmm, I wonder which one is mine...

Most of the time, I end up selecting a male character if I want to play a warrior, simply because I prefer the armour designs.

I know, that the selection of protective looking real-life leather armour for women has grown (which is great), but when it comes to heavy armour, I think it is still quite hard to find something that covers all the important parts, looks fierce and fits my not-so-bulky physique. However, there is a fine selection of chainmail that looks like nightgowns or underwear.
Just buying gear for men in size small is not always an option, because often size small (if it even exists) is still a tad too large and cannot always be adjusted - nothing is worse than feeling your armour move about too much.
Best example are my pauldrons, a man size S/M, that I had to line with fur and take many hours of hammering and bendig them into a somewhat tinier shape to make them somewhat fit my body.
Thank the larp gods there is etsy, where one can at least have unisex armour fit to one's own proportions (in some cases more precise than in others).

There is so much truth in this^^

But since I do want my characters armour to develop rather than already be in it's final state, I have time of course - time to make some things myself and time to maybe eventually find the chainmail of my dreams ;)