I've been looking at historical brigandes and modern sports ones.
An there's an odd major difference in that historical ones have far more rivets an there often in a clover leaf patten why?
You'd think it would be to retain the plates but while modern sports ones don't have to face sharp blades cutting the fabric an have much bigger plates, there fewer rivets still retain the plates despite there regular batterings.

So is all the work or hand drilling that many holes a fashion choice?

It is purely for decoration. Brigandines were the height of fashion and the rivets were arranged in several attractive patterns, not just trefoil. Modern reproductions use fewer rivets to keep the cost down. The best reconstructions replicate the originals far more closely.

https://nadler.us/armour/brigandine-Bob-Reed/project.html

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http://nadler.us/armour/brigandine/project.html

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