Unless you are wearing heavy outter clothing, someone who knows what to look for will always pick up that you are wearing armor. Sinceyou live down south, I doubt you'll be wearing heavy outer clothing. I second the proper fit, but you CAN make do with second hand armor thats 'sorta close". Plenty of penny pinching agencies and officers get by with second hand armor donated by fellow officers....you just run the risk of not knowing how the armor was maintained by its previous owner.
I have a pretty extensive favorites list of body armor companies, but propbably nothing you couldn't get by googling "body armor"