I Can't work with metal, is there any difference between Bluemetal chestplates and say, a bluemetal shirt?
Well if we look at the laws of raw and wiki;
(
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Armor_token and your items_armor.txt file.)
Breastplates cover only the upper body. It is listed as armor. It is listed as HARD and thus never wears down from being worn, all the civilian clothes are SOFT and will wear down from usage.
Shirts cover the upper body and everything above it (head, arms, and anything else that can connect to the upper body without going through the lower body. It is listed as underwear (worn under anything listed as over-wear)
Tunics cover both the upper and lower body, and the upper legs (lbstep:1, meaning upper lower and upper legs), but nothing else.
Dresses and robes cover everything except the hands and feet. Dresses also cover the most area for the least amount of material used.
All of these give 100% protection from contaminants to all involved body parts, according to the wikiraws.
The wiki says that because of a bug in 31.03, these will protect all facial features and appendages, but that might have been addressed.
There's nothing on there that says [SOFT] and [HARD] affect an items ability to defend you (except from embarrassing moth holes on the wrong part of your panties), and the only other differences are the [LAYER:ARMOR/OVER/UNDER] and [STRUCTURAL_ELASTICITY_WOVEN_THREAD(probably the one that decides if it'll protect you from damage or not)] tags.
The biggest issue if those don't stop you is that you 1) may not be able to assign civie clothes to soldiers (I've never even tried, after this i might) and 2) even if you could they'd probably get claimed faster than you can assign them. Then you've got to convince your troops to WEAR them, and dorfs often just store them in a cabinet, and not to take them off when activated.
Probably just by being made of adamantine, the only combat-worthy material also usable in common clothing, they'll protect you pretty well.
teal deer; needs a damn test!
EDIT: typos