I can't replicate the issue. There isn't anything that could be throwing a hidden exception due to e.g. permission problems at some unfortunate point either, since being able to select the custom character means it has been fully setup successfully, and after that it would throw a window with an error message at you if something were to go wrong.
On a side note, do you think it'd be possible for the player to have the option to have a dialog image portrait for them for being clothed versus nude?
I won't add this for the default characters, but I can make this an option for custom characters.