http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ercrYSVaqU
Near the end he asks about customization and looking unique, and Paul treated it almost like a 'is there an appearance tab?' question.

In case you would rather not watch a video right now, what Paul essentially said is there is a 'costume' slot that the 'disguises' dropping that day can go into. "Slot" was used in the singular term both times, and he specifically said there are 'costumes' and 'disguises' throughout the game you can throw on. Both for visual looks, and confusing similarly dressed mobs (which is what disguises do)

Okay, so they have the infastructure for you to look one way but have different stuff equipped. Why bother making specific full costumes (disguises are fine but he also said costumes) when you could instead make them armor sets, and just have multiple slots as an appearance tab?

These wearable disguises and costumes don't sound restricted even by armor type, so people saying 'so people's armor type is discernable in pvp!' don't really have an arugment here.

So what gives, Zenimax? I can stomach no dyes, but if you already have the programming to look one way while getting the stats from another item... What is stopping you from making a full out appearance tab? it is the exact same concept, only you can equip any wearable items into the slots and you have multiple slots. The way these costumes work, they don't sound like they will make people look 'unique' to me. Even if they add 100 costumes, it is very likely you will find a ton of people with that exact costume...
In LOTRO, literally no one looked like me because i took some old dungeon armor, dyed it white (so i looked like a white knight of sorts) and had a very specific helm/cape that i felt went well with the armor.

If they are hesitant to do a full-on LOTRO styled appearance tab out of fear of being called copy-cats (which is dumb, if a game has an amazing feature that isn't copyrighted go for it), there are multiple alternatives

1) something akin to transmog from WoW... essentially destroy appearance item B, to give that appearance to stat item A (thats how it worked right? I left after BC)
2) something like SWTOR (although i don't like that as much since it only works for Purple and Orange gear) where you can rip the yummy-stats from one item and insert them into another
(if they dont want to copy LOTRO, stop saying they should copy others!) okay okay... sheesh...
3) Take the stat item and appearance item to a crafter, who by adding materials and doing some advanced crafting, makes Stat item A look like appearance item B.
4) I don't like this one as much cuz they would have to redo their itemization and loot tables... but all gear is appearance only, and has sockets that you can plug dropped 'gems' of some sort into to define its stats
5) JUST GIVE US THE FREAKING LOTRO APPEARANCE TAB FOR CHRISTS SAKE YOU ALREADY HAVE A SYSTEM THAT WORKS JUST LIKE IT, ITS JUST MORE LIMITED

Everyone feel free to add your own thoughts about this.

I don't think that they said they weren't going to have an appearence tab and if they do add something like that in it has to follow the LOTRO/Rift style. Don't make us lose the armor like in GW2 and be extremely costly. Make it exactly like Rift/LOTRO.

LOTRO styled would be my hope, yes, but that's not what it sounds like.
It sounds like you will have your armor slots, jewelry, two different weapon load outs, and *A* (singular) costume slot... and what goes into that costume slot is full costumes/disguises.
Pretty much this means you can't look like your level 25 dungeon gear you loved to death... its either your End-game armor look, or a pre-made costume you found.

I could care less about costumes, but I would really like to see something similar to transmutation stones that GW2 had, or even the gear system that DCUO implemented.

During one of the videos someone, I don't remember who, was talking about crafters and how they would be able to learn the different racial styles and also mentioned crafters might be able to change the appearance of gear. He/she said something like "You will be able to upgrade your equipment and maybe even change it's appearance". I'll try to find it.

I'm wondering if you can actually wear other races armor? Or just make it?