MistressMaygin,
Let me try to make it succinct for you:
1. Any protection is better than no protection.
2. More protection is better than less protection.
3. Good protection is better than mediocre protection.
We'll first go into the pricing, then types of materials & applications and then we'll talk about sizes and brands.
Pricing - how much are you willing to spend? Budget it out and then worry about what you should get. I personally would recommend around $1500. That sounds a lot but it's to deck you out from head to toes. Besides, how much is a trip to the dermatologist cost for skin repair? We're not even talking about broken bones yet.
I'd recommend around $300-500 for a high quality helmet. Helmets with fancy graphics cost $100-250 more than the same model with solid color. I'd even go further and recommend Arai brand. Why? They have multiple shapes of heads and many sizes. If you can't find any of the several Arai models to fit you, something is wrong. I'd recommend a full face helmet for total protection.
I'd recommend good leather gloves (perforated if need be but your hands don't really get that hot) that are gaunlet style - goes past your wrists and up the bottom part of your forearms. Gloves are very tricky to find fit for. You'll have to try and try and try and try. They should fit you fairly snug. A good pair of gloves should set you back around $80. We're not talking about hard core racing gloves here but good street gloves. I'd recommend Olympia, AlpineStar, Cortech/Tourmaster. If you feel like a millionaire, shell out for Held. Or BMW brand. Go to a BMW dealership and check out their gears. Their gloves are Euro-fit so they tend to be skinny with long fingers. You'll see me referring to BMW gears quite a bit after this.
Boots should be heavy leathers with above-ankle for protection. Preferrably modern-style riding boots with hard ankle protection instead of just cruiser-style boots. However for women, cruiser-style boots usually have high heels and thick soles. Might not be a bad idea as a starter pair while you're getting used to riding a bike. For cruiser boots, it's hard to beat Red Wing boots. They are famous for work boots for a reason - tough leathers. For riding boots, SIDI, AlpineStar, Oxtar (aka TCX) are known for making riding boots. You don't need the racer-style boots for street riding or sport riding. A decent set of boots should cost around $100-200. Once again, check out a BMW joint for their women's boots too.
Jackets and pants can be either leather or textile. I'll cover mesh separately. Leather is made out of leather: cowhide, kangaroo, deer, ostriche, ray, shark, snake, etc. Textiles are made out of some types of nylons (cheap nylon, cheap Cordura, fancy Cordura, Kevlar laminated, etc.) Leather is better...to a point. I'd take an Aerostitch brand textile suit over an Icon suit or Joe Rocket suit any day. I'd take a BMW textile suit over the same any day too. It's not even the thickness or the grade of leathers but also of the stitchings. If the seams bust when you slide on the ground then all those fancy leathers ain't gonna help you much. That's why you want to buy motorcycle leathers and not just any leathers. And when you hit the ground, you're gonna impact something, so get jackets with armor if possible (preferrably CE Level II rated armors at shoulders & elbows with back as option for the jacket and knee cups for the pants with the optional hip armors).
Generally speaking, leathers are heavier, less comfortable and hotter and miserable in the Miami area because of the high humidity. It's easy to say that it's better to sweat than bleed than actually doing it. If you go out on a weekend ride then that's a fine statement to make. But if you commute and get stuck in traffic and your body overheats because of the leathers, you're going to either pass out or lose concentration and crash. In this case, leathers didn't do you any favor.
Textiles offer less abrasion resistance, but lighter and cooler. You pay for convenience with less protection. Try to stay away from cheap nylon and at least go with heavy Cordura. Aerostitch is well known for their textile gears. BMW's textile gears are also top notch. BMW gears tend to be more "fashionable" too. They take the image thing very seriously and try to design gears that you can wear off the bike without looking too much like a street racer or a Baja rider. Cortech/Tourmaster textiles seem to be OK, as are Field Sheer and AlpineStar, but frankly I only trust myself to BMW textiles.
Mesh. There are several types of mesh gears. Cheap nylon mesh that are slightly better than T-shirt, textile outfits with patches of nylon mesh at the torso area and knees, etc., or fancy mesh gears. Cheap nylon mesh are abound from Joe Rocket, First Gear, Icon, Field Sheer, et al. Dainese makes a textile/mesh combo jacket and I think that AlpineStar would offer this sort of combo. The BMW AirFlow is another combo. I think that for Miami, a textile/mesh combo might be better than 100% textile or 100% mesh. It's not too hot there but you do want some decent airflow in order to mitigate the humidity. Then there are the fancy mesh. I only know of two outfits that have fancy mesh: BMW and Motoport. These meshes are made out of heavy textile or kevlar. They are not as good as leathers but they are easily as good as fancy textile.
But what about denim/khaki riding pants? that's your call to make. Regular denims and khakis don't last much more than a few feet of sliding on pavement. Riding denims are a little bit heavier but not that much more. BMW used to have riding pants that look like denim but it seems like they had phased it out. Too bad. Do I have denim riding pants? Yes, I do and I wear them if I were to ride a few miles around the neighborhood. If I were to hit the freeway or highway at all, riding pants (either textile or leathers) are what I wear.
Let's talk about you, Mistress Maygin, in particular. You have quite of a curvaceous figure (
), so it will be tough to find a jacket that would fit you right. Try the Field Sheer women's jackets (I'd suggest the Alpina leather jacket or its textile version). They cut it to be a bit generous on top, with a flare at the hip and cinch at the waist.
I personally would suggest that as a beginner, you deck yourself out from top to bottom and worry about the "cool" or "chic" look later when you are a better rider and have to worry less about going down. Maybe then you would consider wearing denims.
I can tell you that a BMW textile jacket of some sort would run around $500 and the pants would run around $400.
Riding apparels are meant to fit snug but not tight. Gloves should be snug. Boots should fit like regular boots. Helmet should be tight but not to the point of giving you headache or pinch your cheeks so hard that you can't breath. There should be no gaps around your head.
Motorhelmets.com will sell you with good discount if you were to contact them and tell them that HT sends you. I spend thousands of dollars with them so they give a little extra discount to the people that I send their way. They're very close to me and I know the sales people personally.
But if you were to want to save all the hassles of hunting for bits and pieces of gears, just go to a BMW dealership and the knowledgeable sales people will hook you up. BMW has a line of female gears that's guarantee to fit most women who aren't fat. These sales people can measure you up and consult the charts if they don't have the sizes in stock. And if the gears don't fit, they can exchange for ones that do. Just remember that the blue/white propeller Roundel means that it ain't gonna be cheap. It will be good and it will be right, but it won't be cheap.
It's not ridiculous at all to have a set of basic gear that costs nearly $2000. It sounds a lot but how valuable is your skin? You're one sexy young woman. The last thing that you need is a bunch of nasty scars heaven forbids you get into a crash.