I had the purple cloth armor and sold it for the brown leather armor, but the view of my character still is showing the purple stuff. I'm playing vers 1.034. I hope it will eventually change?
Perhaps they just both look very similar on your character, i've had several different sets of armour that didn't show any significant changes either. My character had a drastic makeover once he started wearing mithrill armour though. Give it some time.
armor not changing 
Linear Mode
