I really like olives with peanut butter.  Don’t ask me why.  I just do.  Salty nuttyness of olives with the slightly salty creaminess of peanut butter just works.  I had this precise combination in mind when I read the news that Patricia Field was going to be designing a one-off 35-piece collection for Marks & Spencers.  Again, don’t question which party is the peanut butter and which are the olives.  There’s just a sense of initial disgust and then final understanding as you smear some PB on the olive.

This is M&S understandably cashing in, taking advantage of the ‘au courant’ qualities of Pat Field, styling the SATC movie and popular TV shows like Ugly Betty.  Yet when you look at her own branded label selling the lovable glitz, tack and fluff and also her past collaborations with ASOS which also consist of glitz, tack and fluff, it just seems like the M&S customer who wants to rely on the store as opposed to being excited by it, might not buy into Patricia Field’s penchant for the unexpected and the random. 

Though I do believe dear Pat has many clever strings to her bows and seeing as she’s already decided on basing the collection on ‘Destination  Style New York’, I’m thinking the unlikely combo of the two will bode well come October.  Target customer probably isn’t moi but as someone who has been fascinated by Patricia Field’s work, I expect nothing of the watered down in this upcoming collab...