I don't like the poll because I have two things: Looks and to see if it fits character.
Looks is the important thing. I wear only stuff that looks good on my character, screw armor rating. BUT it it limited by my character and his/her style. As a rule, I never wear armors specific to other races. My Nords won't use Elven equipment and my Altmer won't use Ancient Nord, Nordic Carved or any of the Dunmer armors of Dragonborn.
Sometimes I wear clothes and armor for RP reasons. My Nord emulates Ysgramor to the best of his ability and thus he uses only, ONLY Ancient Nord stuff, even arrows (Nord Hero Arrows, thank goodness for mods). He refuses to use anything else. My Altmer mage on the other hand uses Thalmor robes (personal, modded versions thereof) because it's part of his RP.
My favorite armor in the game is definitely Ancient Nord + Helm of Yngol. On males, I don't like the female version because of lack of torso part of the armor (instead I get these two strips of rags - most unpractical armor ever). Thalmor robes look awesome as well but due to their Thalmor nature they see very little use with my characters. http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/images/6085-1-1327743215.jpg I like as well.
My favorite shield is Banded Iron. I use no other shield, ever, even my Nord Ysgramor-wannabe used Banded Iron before moving to two-handed weapons, because Shield of Ysgramor looks ridiculous as hell and clips through the character's feet.
Needless to say that my RPs depend heavily on the equipment they require.