You could hide all of your armour with exception for your weapons in Wildstar, I saw no problem in it.
There's also a cosmetic item that does exactly that, hides all of your gear and makes you appear nude, it has a 10 minute duration and 10 minute cooldown, assuming you don't die it therefore has a 0 second downtime.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=119092
There are plenty of sets, especially for cloth, that would look a lot better without shoulder pads, because they weren't designed with any in mind.