Gadget Girl:
Thank you.  Believe it or not, but that entire Do ( - Doh - Japanese name for base torso armor) is utilizing the second leather preset named "S_Leather_Belt_CLO_V2".  It has great stiffing power without causing simulation errors I was getting with trying to have the stiffest material settings (everything at their highest settings).  I would love for it to be stiffer, but the simulation engine will just go wonky with the mesh, and it ends up a crumpled mess, parts severely intersecting, or even parts shooting off into space.
This was my happy medium, and works quite well.  When I do posing, it holds up nicely, and I just have to let the armor skirt (which has invisible straps holding it together - later to be replaced by actual lacing) settle a little to remove any deformations.  The real trick for this to work was the combination of the preset, and the structure itself.  I had to redo several times in small increments, and am utilizing smaller blocked out pieces as well as a lot of internal line settings to dictate amount of stiffness/bending needed per part.
The Do is not quite finished yet, and I plan to create the rest of the Samurai armor eventually...