Stone Island Puts Basséne on the Frieze Focus Shirt

Stone Island has put an artwork by Arébénor Basséne on the latest Frieze Focus uniform T shirt, the ninth edition of the series, and it is sold at Selfridges' Corner Shop in London while Frieze London runs October 14 to 18. Stone Island returns for a fourth year as Official Partner of Focus, the section for galleries no more than 12 years old, and the shirt is the clearest object the partnership produces. It also lands inside another Stone Island project that is already open in that building.

Thirty Five Galleries, Seventeen Countries, One Bursary Each

Focus at Frieze London 2026 has 35 galleries from 17 countries, each no more than 12 years old. According to Frieze's press material, Stone Island provides every participating gallery with a bursary, which is the practical half of an Official Partner deal. The shirt is the visible half. Frieze London and Frieze Masters together host almost 300 galleries from 48 countries and regions in Regent's Park, with an invitation only preview on October 14 and 15 and public days from October 16 to 18, so the Focus section is one small part of a very large fair.

Basséne shows in Focus with Selebe Yoon of Dakar, at booth F31, in a solo presentation of recent works. The gallery says he turns the booth into a projection, a cartography of the elsewhere. His paintings draw on Dogon cosmology, astronomy and maps and are made with natural pigments, wax, graphite and wood shavings on batik fabric, and one listed work is SIRIUS series #3, from 2026. Wallpaper identifies him as a Senegalese artist.

Ninth Uniform, Second Shirt for Sale

The Frieze uniform series started as staff clothing. Frieze describes the earlier London and New York uniforms as designed by Focus artists including Hasani Sahlehe and Nat Faulkner. The Basséne shirt is the ninth iteration of the Focus artist uniform series, and it is available to buy at Selfridges' The Corner Shop, where Archyde notes the display runs until November 6, 2026.

Selling the shirt is newer than wearing it. In February, Stone Island and Frieze made the first limited edition T shirt for Frieze Los Angeles with Houston artist Jamal Cyrus. That shirt reworked his 2025 work Archipelagos in a Negro Spiritual as a digital print with a raised finish on a garment dyed base, and it was sold at the Frieze Los Angeles shop and at the Stone Island store on La Brea while stocks lasted. Frieze Los Angeles ran February 26 to March 1 at Santa Monica Airport. London is the second limited edition shirt the partnership has put on sale.

The Shirt Is Sold Inside Selected Works

The Corner Shop is not a neutral retailer for this shirt. It is the space Stone Island took over from September 21 to November 6 for Selected Works, The Collector Series, a six week installation designed by Willo Perron where collectors sell personally curated vintage Stone Island. Eight independent curators run it, Arco Maher, Better Gift Shop, 'bout, 194 Local, Holsales, Metallic Curtain, Pezze and SimJae, and the space reconfigures weekly.

So the person who walks into Selfridges for the Frieze shirt walks past a rotating archive. That adjacency puts a brand that sells Massimo Osti era garments through collectors next to a T shirt printed with a living artist's work, under one roof for six weeks.

The collector side has its own record. Glenn Kitson photographed the eight Passport collectors across seven cities, London, Paris, Naples, New York, Toronto, Seoul and Tokyo, and Stone Island opened Friendly Pressure: Studio One in the Old Selfridges Hotel with a Paix Per Mil takeover on September 25 to 27.

What the Partnership Has Put on a Shirt

Stone Island's Focus role is not confined to London. Frieze profiled Focus artist Shaniqwa Jarvis in the Stone Island program at Frieze Los Angeles in 2025, and Frieze Los Angeles in February 2026 carried the shirt by Jamal Cyrus. Frieze London in October carries one by Arébénor Basséne. A Houston artist and a Dakar based painter now sit on the same garment line.

Archyde reports that Stone Island and Dover Street Market are also presenting activations at Frieze London, and Stone Island Denim Research FW26 reached the floor at Dover Street Market New York on October 1. Frieze London closes October 18, and the Corner Shop display stays open until November 6.