Creating several different surfaces for one mesh
 

Hi,

suppose I have made a very basic character, consisting of one continous mesh. The character is modeled though as if it has many parts - shoes, trousers, shirt, skin and so on.

How do I select a group of faces (all those that make up the visible skin, then all those that make up the trousers etc), in a manner that I can then select them easily to modify their surfaces? Like in Lightwave, where you select them then hit "q" to name and define it as a surface, which can then be manipulated on its own.

Any help appreciated,

thanks,

G.