Maybe there could be a 'quality' property that's calculated alongside value, so something could be expensive but low quality (expensive materials by an unskilled tailor), or fairly inexpensive but very high quality (cheaper materials by a very skilled tailor). It wouldn't be based on the length of text in any way, and additionally take less consideration of the material value.
It might be one of the numerical factors already included in calculations of item value, but only get displayed as a word, like how drugs in game have varying levels of quality you can tell if you have sufficient knowledge in them.
Tailors should have to deal with the actual quality of their work, and artists of appropriately good technique should not be punished for describing their clothes in less words. This would also let connoisseurs discern counterfeits from the real thing and keep the 'trading' skill relevant rather than having it be moot for purposes of pricing a work of art.
This suggestion seems to resolve all these issues. Credit to Scotchy for coming up with this solution.
