Yes Hannibal, such a fashion would be expensiv and not very useful in every days live.
In Germany brass bands called "Fanfarenzug" took up this style.
I generally based the colours on contemporary paintings. The colourful clothing was used mainly by german Landsknechts and swiss Reissläufern and was not the common dress of the period. So the soldiers used this clothing to seperate themselves from other.
I use to paint only one or two figures at one time to give them an individual looking.
Christoph