Darth Vader's injured body is encased in a protective suit of quilted, black high-tech Imperial material that looks an awful lot like leather here on Earth.
The
Body Suit
To achieve this look, I purchased enough quilted nylon to make pants and a jacket, plus a pattern to follow.  Since I'm not great at sewing, or following a pattern, I made some mistakes.  My foul-ups forced me to go off the board a bit and just "wing it".  I ended up with a jacket that closes off to one side similar to a chef's jacket. A long strip of black 1/2 inch wide  velcro holds the flap shut. The closure seam will end up being covered by the inner cloak, so my original sewing mistake turned into a positve thing.
The pants have an elastic waistband.  Mostly, I guess, because I didn't know how to do a zipper. The jacket  would be worn on the outside of the pants. The bottom of the jacket would be covered by the cod piece and the inner cloak.
Here's the real kicker.  If you are lucky enough to find quilted nylon in BLACK with ONE INCH stitching, your job is that much easier.  I really didn't look that hard.  The fabric/craft place that I frequent didn't carry it. The next best thing, navy blue, was on sale.  The sales lady thought I was nuts when I told her I was going to PAINT the fabric black.  (Dyeing isn't an option on this sort of material.)   The photo up top next to the page title is a close-up example of the texture that I achieved with the quilted nylon and fabric paint.
I picked up several bottles of Scribbles brand fabric paint in gloss black and a small sponge roller. Armed with these things,  I went to town.  On a sheet of aluminum foil, I squeezed out a large blob of paint, ran my roller through it, then proceeded to roll it onto the fabric. Once dry, I had the desired effect of a glossy black, quilted leather body suit.
My only complaint is that the fabric is slightly stiff and "crinkly" sounding, simply because of the pant job.  The sound isn't too horrendous or anything, but noticeable if the room is completely quiet.  My advice:  Try harder to find the material in black. It does exist. My painted suit ended up on a home made mannequin in the basement that I use to store  my costume on. I just didn't like the crinkle sound.
I went back to wearing the vinyl outfit you see in the pics on the site. (see "A side note" for details)
Photos of my suit on this site were taken before I made the quilted body suit featured on this page.  In my costume photos, I am wearing a two piece faux-aligator skin pants/jacket outfit that I found in a local department store for less than $40.00. (Sears, if you need to know, but that  was back around 2001.)
A side note:
Helmet      Armor     Chest Box     Belt Buckle     Belt boxes    Lighting up Belt Boxes    Outer Cape     Inner Cloak    Gloves and Boots  
                  Body Suit    My Costume    Evolution of my Suit     Acknowledgements     Links     Home Page        Email me    
Other Options
Ultimately, you'd like to have a quilted leather body suit.  A quilted vinyl body suit is the next prefered garment.  If neither is an option, then the quilted satiny  black fabric would be a good choice, visually, anyway. I'm not sure if the quilted stuff would be hotter than leather and vinyl or not.

However, you needn't bog yourself down trying to make one right away, or ever. A good portion of the body suit is cover up by capes and accessories. Look for things that have some texture +/or thickness  and slight shine to it.  This isn't a Catwoman costume, so no wet look vinyl. Egads! And also, stay away from dull, matte finish  fabrics  like cotton, denim, etc...

Pair up a black leather jacket with black vinyl pants. For years, this was what I used.  Or try motor cycle gear.   Check second hand stores for cheap stuff.  You may a  cool quilted nylon jacket or vest. Who knows.

I actually really like my faux aligator skin suit.  It's black and leathery looking, but has lots of texture to fool the untrained eye.  Vader enthusiasts would know I deviated from the true look, but the average person wouldn't even notice or care.

They even make some spandex items that simulate a leather texture. I'd be careful,though, with spandex. It's too thin on its own,and possibly too tight.  It may require being a size or two too big for you and have something on underneath it. Not sure if this idea would really work. Vader's suit isn't supposed to be skin- tight.