A brand owns its designs. But who preserves the stories that grow around them over decades? With the Collector Series at Selfridges in London, Stone Island gives independent collectors space to present their own view of more than forty years of fashion history.
A jacket from an earlier Stone Island collection is more than a former product. It records an experiment with materials, dyeing or function. For the people who spend years finding, wearing, trading and documenting such pieces, it holds another story too: where they discovered it and how it travelled through a community.
Those perspectives now meet in London. Under the title Selected Works ’982–’026: Stone Island – The Collector Series, Stone Island has taken over the Corner Shop at Selfridges from 21 September to 6 November 2026. It is the brand’s first formal collaboration with independent collectors who have helped preserve and interpret its archive across decades.
An Archive with Many Voices
Arco Maher, Better Gift Shop, ‘bout, 194 Local, Louis Holsgrove, Metallic Curtain, Pezze and SimJae contribute their own archives and research. Their selections rotate throughout the project, appearing alongside the Autumn/Winter 2026/27 collection and pieces exclusive to Selfridges. Past garments, current research and new designs occupy the same space.
That is the project’s most compelling move. Stone Island is allowing its history to be seen through eyes beyond the company. Collectors follow particular materials, rare variations and different periods of the label, building knowledge through years spent with the garments themselves. Their selections show how a brand archive continues to grow beyond the brand.
A Space Made to Change
Willo Perron designed the installation as a flexible setting of soft structures and modular components. It can be rearranged as the collectors and garments change. The space reflects the idea behind the series: this archive has no single, final form.
The accompanying programme extends into music and design, including a London edition of Stone Island Sound: Studio One and a conversation with Carlo Rivetti, Paul Harvey and Aitor Throup. The Collector Series becomes a meeting place for people interested in the label’s evolution, from the making of a garment to the cultural life it develops afterwards.
It also raises a fascinating question: what happens when a brand invites the independent collectors who have been writing their own version of its history? At Stone Island, the result is an unusually open view of the past. These archives belong to people with different interests and perspectives. For a few weeks, they get to tell their stories together.
