I had posted this as a comment in another thread yesterday but it has been swallowed by the forum so I thought I'd start a separate discussion on the suggestions.

Why not allow crafters to create an Orange item schematic of existing gear through reverse engineering. Essentially, making a mod-able version of that item. So if someone finds a "look" they like, and wants to be able to scale it up as they level, they would seek out someone with the appropriate crewskill to make them the Orange version.

So when RE-ing there would be a chance to learn the blue or purple version but also a chance to learn the orange version.