I suggested in another thread you could have one of the dwarfs as manager of sort (hoardkeeper? trader?), who the dwarfs could come to meet, and require things. He would keep a list of in a page under his settings, that player could view, and approve/disapprove them. He could then order either job creations for them (through job manager), or purchase of them when caravan comes in if creation is not possible.
So, ideally Urist McNaked wants to get new trousers, since the last pair has completely worn off. He goes to meet the manager, who talks with Urist for a while (attend meeting), before adding "Trousers" in the wish list. Urist may have different demands, or wishes so it could be "Trousers, preferred emerald dyed pigtail".
You could set some requests to be automatically accepted (like plant fiber clothing, nont metal objects, something like stockpile settings).
When the player accepts the request (either automatical acceptance or checking the request and Ok:ing it, then a job order is created, and later produced. The linking of the product to the person may require some work, but atleast the object is available in the fort inventory for the dwarf to get/buy.
If the item can not be produced (how to define this is problem. Maybe player acceptance has two options, "make" and "buy" so player chooses what can be made), it will be bought from caravan, if possible. For this, the trader should have option "search for requests" button, which when pressed will add all items in merchants storage that match the items on request list into the deal.