I don't agree with Yoshi that its really that difficult to allow players to have a look they like. There are simple solutions that plenty of MMO's have utilized. One of the more simple ones is an appearance tab. There are already systems in place that work in a similar fashion, so I can't see it being that hard to implement.
Allow us to take gear that we like the look of and "Strip It" of all stats. From here on out this item is for appearance only and would be placed in a new inventory tab that takes up no slots.
Add duplicate of the GEAR tab for appearance only. This allows you to set up clothing that will appear in the place of the actual stat gear you are wearing. So you can customize to your hearts content. In the normal gear tab add a checkbox to set APPEARANCE GEAR on or OFF.
Then add dying NPC in with a simple "Paint Bucket" feature that allows you to re-dye armor (Trim, Color 1, Color 2 etc).
What this does is allow a much greater range of appearance control (You can build a look based on all gear available to you in game). You can still restrict some styles from working on some jobs/classes. Compared to many systems should be fairly simple to implement.