The PR about Williams-Sonoma‘s new Agrarian collection is all around us this week. Agrarian is a line of “DIY” merchandise targeted to the upscale sustainable farmer.

If you know anything about Williams-Sonoma, you already have surmised that this merchandise is targeted to a special breed of farmer. The kind of farmer who likes their planting equipment coppered, monogrammed, patinated and distressed. Who likes chicken coops priced well into 4 figures, and for them to be of an iconic, prefabricated appearance to trumpet the designer label origins. And for farmers desiring White Glove delivery, where the term “do-it-yourself” temporarily takes on another meaning and becomes a simple command to the delivery driver who is expected to assemble it on-site with the gentleman farmer looking over his shoulder.

You could poke fun at this concept all day long, as many pundits are doing. Which is what intrigues me about Agrarian: It’s too easy to laugh at. But the fact is, when a top brand pulls something like this, they’ve usually got some business fundamentals behind it.

Williams-Sonoma are pretty shrewd; they weathered the 2009 recession when others playing in their retail niche went under when mass desertions of budget-conscious consumers bankrupted their premium brands. W-S has probably crunched numbers and decided that the sustainable / organic farming movement has reached a point where they can identify how many consumers are immune to the irony of the Agrarian concept, and see enough potential sales from them that could lift it to profitability.

Williams-Sonoma may find that there is more of a market for this merchandise that just their current customers. One thing that immediately struck me is how many apologists there are for this rarified merchandise among sustainable farmers in the blogosphere. There seems to be no shortage of growers with dirty hands out there who seem to lust after the product porn presented in the Agrarian catalog — though I just skimmed most of them so I don’t have a keen sense of how much of their blog content may be cultivated through product gimmes by W-S social media managers.

And let’s not forget the boutique tie-ins – shoring up the brand through partnerships with small-marque players who exude integrity and offer exposure to a new base of customers.

But all of that is accompanied by a large amount of jeers and tart comments about the silliness of the whole idea. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a retailer walk such a fine line with a concept that could either see them profiting from the critical mass around food conscious trends, or tarnish their brand through a load of sarcastic negative PR.

Will the daily grower and urban farmer be seduced by lovingly crafted beehives priced for the BMW-driver demographic, and break the bank to get them? Or will the line be an embarrassing flop to be quietly discontinued with only a few desperate Etsy housewives left disappointed? Whatever happens I think it will happen quickly, as trend-driven product lines are usually found to be, ahem… unsustainable.

A note on the brand design of Williams-Sonoma Agrarian: The art director should be spanked in public for using that corny Declaration of Independence-ish Caslon Antique font for the logo. Yeah, we get it – With Agrarian’s tools in your apron it’s so easy to stand on the porch of your 1750s fixer-upper farmhouse and imagine you’ve been transported back to colonial Massachussetts, tending your garden in starched linens while hubby barters with the Mohicans. Yeesh.