I remember many complaining, myself included, that not having your character show in the inventory screen was a disappointment when trying on different clothes/armor combos etc.... Some said it wasn't that too much of an effort to go back and forth from inventory to 3rd person to see the fashion changes. But! If you enter 3rd person view and circle around to see your character from the front and then enter your inventory you can swap out armor/clothes and see the effect without ever leaving the inventory screen.

I know it's not much, but considering all the problems and complaints that have been showing up in the last two days I think of this as a small victory

I remember your complaint, and I basically read it before I got Skyrim myself. Once I got Skyrim and started playing, I realized what you jsut said: we can still see our characters, we just have to mess with camera angle before trying on different stuff.