If you look at Gucci SS2006, it was just clothes too…
Context is important in fashion and the vision of looking forward as well as the positioning of a house is important.
Today, it’s a bit easy to put everything at the same level because HF can be seen as luxury but back then, there was a kind of clear distinction in terms of audience, price point, expectation and products.
The person going to Jil Sander, no matter the era, is going for the clothes and the promise of those clothes (Jil Sander is about clothes for an active/professional life). I don’t think clothes was ever the first promise from Gucci.