Even when all races have their 'origin story', culture in this game is largely based on geographical location, not races, even if they're the dominant population. Say, just because most of Ishgard's populaton are Elezen, doesn't mean Ishgardian = Elezen, and inversely doesn't mean that every Elezen is an Ishgardian.

The starter gear (with the exception of Viera, I guess) and their hempen sets are just random clothings the devs made for each race, but have no significance whatsoever culturally or racially.