In Elder Scrolls games so far, we have had heavy and light armor.
Heavy usually consisting of steel, dwarven, orcish, ebony, etc.
Light being leather or fur, elven, glass, etc.

Now my first thought was, would the Elves ONLY wear light armor. Would the Orcs ONLY wear heavy armor? Surely the Orcs would have made lighter armor, as they are hunters and archers and surly the elves would have heavy warriors clad in some sort of plated protection.
My second thought is, with the split alliances, (you all know whos in them by now) would the High Elves be trading with the Orcs or even Nords for their heavy armors? Would the Argonians be travelling all the way up north just to get some dwarven stuff?
No. No they wouldn't. They would simply use materials they are familiar with and produce sets appropriate to them.


The High Elves use refined moonstone as a basis of their light armor and weapons, they should be quite capable at making some sort of heavy platted armor.
The Orcs use orichalcum ore. I think they could make a sort of light fur and orichalcum set for hunting and such.

Now I do know that the Dark Elves made heavy and light armor out of the shells and bone of the creatures that lived in Morrowind. I would think the Argoinans would have done something similar.
So what do you think? Race tailored armor? But there's nothing stopping a Red Guard from getting hold of some Argonain style armor.