Ok, first lets start with th' philosophy. There be generaly three frames o' thought out there;

1. the Hollywood/Fantasy - pretty much anything goes. If its flashy, do it. But expect to get much ridicule from loyalists and historians

2. the Pirate Reenactor/Historians

ok, now I said "three" but only listed two. Well, number two becomes the problem. True hard core historians take things to the extreme, often refered to as "clothing natzies". In a forum just a few day ago it was stated

"If you can not provide at least three evidences of proof, then it never existed. If you can provide three evidences of proof it did exist but one evidence of proof that it did not exist, then it never existed."

Then ye have your 'rational thinkers', stating that if within reason you can prove all the elements were there at the time and the technology and materials existed, then there is nothing saying that it 'could not have existed' so therefore it well may have existed.
Example: 'Baldrics' - there is proof baldrics were in common use 200 years Before the GAoP (1650 to 1730) and then there is proof they were still in common use up to 200 years later...BUT, there is NO proof that they were still in "common use" During the GAoP. Therefore the 'clothing natzies' say "pirates simply did not use them".

Now, you have to remember that the 'clothing natzies', the hard core "show me" historians, relay soly on 'Recovered Artifats' - with pirates, there is Very Little. While some of the prominate figures (Blackbeard, Calico Jack) where 'captured' and 'brought to justice' in a court of law, there where 100s of 1,000s that were either killed on the spot, went down with the sip, or never caught at all - take Captain Avery for instance, often said to be one of The most sucsessful pirates of all times (even if it was by sheer luck) and NOBODY knows where he disapeared to. There where 100s or 1,000s of pirates and pirate crews that NEVER made it into any history book.

'Pirates' is a very generalized word. Are we specificaly speaking of "pirates", or perhaps buccaneers, or privateers, or mutanieers, and are we speaking of a crew of a particular nationality (English, French, Spanish, Barbados, Asian, Dutch, ??) or are we speaking of the few that were a crew of various backgrounds what came together off small islands of the Caribbean, in which case they would become th' modern theory of Chaos to the scince of 'pirates'.
And the particular crew ye speak about, what are their background? Are they primarily of military background what 'turned pirate' or are they of desparte men who joined in some tavern (perhaps Tortuga or New Providence) and then took to the sea.

Not all pirates started out as seamen, as matter of fact a well ran ship had men of many backgrounds; carpenters, blacksmiths, doctors, tailors, cooks. Many were 'pressed' into piracy against their will, many went t' the docks seeking a crew t' join, others were indeed naval personal who committed mutiny and took over the ship and tossed all those pledging loyalty t' the crown overboard.

So, basically what I am getting at, where clothing and even weapons are conserned; there are many a pirate enthusiast that will argue what Is and what Is Not correct, and continuously those stating something is not correct find themselves eating those words as proof is found, and visa versa. It all depends on which side of #2 they belong to and how much you at least try to stick with 'reality' in creating something using only the resources available at the time - even if there is no Hard Copy to draw from. For two years I watched as they fought in forums over 'boots', now that an authentic Historian who is actively excavating Tortuga has come and stated there is proof that pirate ruled outposts contained boots, many of the hard cases still reject the notion. As matter of fact I even found one thread just the other day where a proclaimed historian expert still argues that pirates never wore earrings - yet there is much proof that many did, perhaps not enough 'proof' for anyone to say that earrings where "common" but there is much proof that not only pirates but men of well renoun in the 16th and 17th century wore earrings. It is like those historians that reject any notion that pirates EVER at all had hidden treasure - yet there are two well known cases that state otherwise...thou in neither case has the treasure been actually found; I am speaking of:

1. Captain Kidd: at his hanging he is said to have hinted that he did indeed stash his booty somewhere between India and Boston.
   http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/kidd.html
2. Olivier Le Vasseur (French pirate); said at his hanging "My treasure to he who can understand". And to this very day some very distinguished men still spend thousands of dollars in search of his hidden treasure
   http://www.michaelbehar.com/smithsonian/treasurequest.html

Also it was well known and documented that at times pirates would capture more then they could carry and would 'stash' it to come back for the rest later (read about Captain Drake and others and you will find some of these tales)

But back on the subject of 'clothing'; I have found that many (not by any means to say 'all') pirate reenactors seem to come from the Civil War reenactment groups, they in particular like to argue that "all pirates where of Military origin and therefore would have adapted a military style dress" - actually I find that thought quite amuzing from such self proclaimed 'experts of authority' as there is so much evidence to the contrary. Of course many pirate crews were, but many others were not, many pirate crews never served a day in the king or queen's service, many were of a fishermen background or whaling background or even simple merchant background, many came from careers upon land, there is even one (forget his name at the moment) who was a prominent businessman, never sailed a day in his life, then one day, in his mid-thirties, just woke up and said "I'm going to sea to be a pirate" - he was killed within his first year of piracy and refered to having a "mid-life crisis" and "the worst pirate ever".

There is a site that details a few of the known crewmen of the so far one and only 'recovered' pirate ship; The Whydha
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/main.html

The ship currently being recovered as Queen Ann's Revenge has yet to be positively identified as such, so far we are all just hoping.

(did you know the average higth of a pirate was only 5-foot 5-inches, a far cry for Hollywood's 6-foot plus pirates!)