I know absolutely nothing about modding so I'm not sure how plausible this is. I, like many other people, play a battle-mage kind of character. I love the look of the robes along with my other heavy armor pieces, but since I miss out on so much armor I die all the time. I'm thinking instead there could be an upgrade at smithing tables for pieces of armor that would use the look of a robe, but keep the pauldrons of whatever the armor you are upgrading. The required material could just be bolts of cloth, or a robe (again, I don't know which is easier for modders to make.)

If anyone thinks they could do this I, and many other battle-mages, would be extremely grateful.

I would guess it would be a case of making a custom reaction at the Work Bench that requires a Robe and some metal ingots, maybe some leather strips as well. Then it would be a case of making a type of armor for each metal, and then making the models.