How to apply character body type to a modular armor piece?

I am working on a project where I plan to be able to change the body type, skin colour complexion…etc. of the character. I think I can figure that par out, but my problem lies in that I would also like exchangeable clothing and armor pieces, and i would prefer the modular skeletal mesh with master pose component approach to do that. Is there a way to apply the same changes to for example an armor piece, that I applied to the base character? My thought is that when creating the armor piece I should add the same blendshapes and/or morph targets to it as i did to the base character, then just copy/apply the ‘value’ over to the new armor piece in the game. I am pretty new to the whole modelling/animation and ue4 in general, but I would imagine that it isnt the most efficient way.

Now, I am not hell bent on the modular sk mesh, i just read that it was probably the most logical way of approaching this.
So before I jump into it all wrong I wanted to ask a few questions:

Is there some good material on this I could read or watch (mainly on the armor part where the same morphing applies to pieces as to the base)?
Would it be more efficient to use armor an socket and just morph that mesh (assuming it is rigid, though I cant i magine that working well with gloves or boots)?
Is there a good ‘marriage’ between using sockets and different SK meshes for bodyparts?

Any materials or advice that relate to this would be a huge help, sadly I couldnt find lots.