Options, options, so much to choose from.

When I started Garb the World about 20 years I ago I realized that one of our strengths was the ability to provide lots of options for items since we were custom-making clothes for people.  You can have any sleeve type you want. You can have any neck style you want. Put trim where you want. Want pockets? Sure!

All the options led to a bit of a confusion between products - is this a monk robe without a hood, or a robe with a hood? And some strange delineations - A monk robe with a slit down the front is a separate item we call an Wizard robe or open robe. 

Needless to say, programming all of these options into the webpage isn't trivial. Especially for the original website where each page was individually coded.  About 10 years ago I learned about php and started using common includes, that was helpful.

For the new site I am using BOLD product options in Shopify, which allows me to have an unlimited number of options. It also allows me to form option 'sets', which combines a few options and is great for some items.  I can also set up options with swatches to show what the actual colours are. For now I have selected digital colors, but in future I hope to upload actual swatches. 

I am changing some of the options offered for the items, I'm removing some that never get selected and adding some that do.  I've also changed some of the outfits so they include all the accessories like pins and belts if they are needed for the costume to be worn. This is for simplicity for the website and for production. 

My experience on Etsy (that has few options) is that when you deal with customers directly it's not hard to get all the information to make the garment the way the client wants it.  I'll try to make it clear that people can ask for other options if they aren't that complicated or deviate too much from what we are doing. We're making the garment custom-made to fit measurements, we can change things.  Legs of different lengths? Not a problem.