So, it's really been bugging me for the past few days how Bethesda chose to make certain apparel restricted to NPCs. There are some really cool looking items that your character is unable to loot from NPCs, for no apparent reason. It is impossible to ever obtain one of the hoods used by the Imperial battlemages, for instance, and it's impossible to loot the armor worn by generic thieves encountered in Riften.

It's especially aggravating because the game gives no real reason for why you can't obtain the items. For example, the leather hood is one of only 2 unenchanted light armor hoods in the game, yet for whatever reason you can never obtain one. You can never get the cool gear worn by executioners either.

The whole draw of the Elder Scrolls series is that you can do what you want and be whoever you want... but Bethesda has for whatever reason make some of the cooler gear unobtainable.

oblivion had the same problem on a few items

Use the console?
??????
profit??

Unlootable also results in unwearable. OP will have to wait for the CS to change item wearability flags.