‘A shadow passed over Saruman’s face; then it went deathly white. Before he could conceal it, they saw through the mask the anguish of a mind in doubt, loathing to stay and dreading to leave its refuge. For a second, he hesitated, and no one breathed. Then he spoke, and his voice was shrill and cold. Pride and hate were conquering him.’
Okay, so. Canonically. We know the Feanorians wore red plumed helmets.
And I think this is what Tolkien meant by that. These wacky Roman style helmets.
Now Iβm no Roman expert but I do know Tolkien was a nerd and did draw a lot of correlations between Quenya and Latin and. Uh. I think maybe weβve been drawing old 1st-age elves the wrong way. Maybe Tolkien legit intended for them to be roman-looking.
Elf tunics donβt look like Peter Jackson stuff. They looked like this back in the first age/valinor.
Leaf-pattern elegant armor? No, my dude. The Feanorians showed up to kick Melkorβs ass (or at least try and fail) wearing this