There are four types of materials involved in Clothing: Raw Materials, Processed Materials, Tannins, and Gems.
Raw Materials are the raw materials that can be found in the world on plants or wild animals. By themselves they cannot be used, but they may be refined into Processed Materials at any clothing station. Unlocking the "Plentiful Harvest" and "Master Gatherer" perks in the Lover Champion tree will also provide bonuses when harvesting.
Processed Materials are used to make Light and Medium Armor.
Tannins can be used to improve existing light or medium armor.
Gems can be used to craft armour with traits, provided that trait has been researched on that piece.
Each plant is found in a specific zone or zones in each of the alliances; for the list of zones see the plant page. A tier of scraps obtained from hunting, however, is scaled to the character level. For instance, a level 40 character can find scraps of tiers 1 through 3 in lower level zones and Thick Leather Scraps in all others. Animals in higher leveled zones will yield only Thick Leather Scraps, until the character reaches level 46. [verification needed — Contradicted by Wrothgar and Cyrodiil's scaled node system]
