How to do switchable clothing and Armor??

So I am making a medieval RPG. I want to have the character start out with some basic clothing, then be able to find more armor and clothing that can be swapped. The clothing should be different visually, and stat wise. So you can visually see the armor, and it boosts defense etc. And the clothing should deform properly with the character animations. I have a base character with nothing, just the naked body. Am I supposed to select faces of the character and duplicate, then design and sculpt the clothing from there and it will already bend properly with animations? Am I supposed to animate every single piece of armor? I have no idea what to do. I just want to have different armors that can be picked up and equipped from enemy kills and chests. And how would I do this with enemies that wear armor? Such as when you kill them you can take their armor? Thanks for any help