I'm right there with you on the costuming, functional and they help watchers who are completely new to the series identify different people.
I also like how 'different' all the braids were from each other.
For discussion of Episode 1, Leavetaking - we're talking pure TV show here, no book spoilers please!
If you want to discuss with book spoilers check out @Aratouial Delafeld's thread here.