Designer jeans: Does my art look big in this?

They are more closely associated with the high street than high art, but at £1,000 for a pair of jeans, pop artist Stuart Semple's latest creations are hardly your average straight leg or boot cuts. Semple – who nearly died from a peanut allergy in 2000, which reportedly gave him the motivation to dedicate his time to painting – has teamed up with eight major denim labels to produce a limited edition collection that straddles the boundary between wearable fashion and collectable art.

The jeans will be available as part of the forthcoming Cult of Denim exhibition, which will see part of Selfridges in London transformed into a mini-gallery from 15 October. It is timed to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair, the busiest week in the capital's art calendar. The exhibition – which will also feature a glowing diamond-shaped installation and dramatic denim canvases starting at £75,000 – aims to "explore the versatility of denim in fashion and art".

Semple's collaboration follows on from the work of the Turner Prize-winner Damien Hirst, who last year created a range for Levi's. Hirst's jeans and T-shirts, featuring his signature skull, spot and multi-coloured butterfly motifs, were all priced below £150 and sold quickly. Semple has hand-painted, bleached and embellished eight pairs of jeans from labels such as Levi's, J Brand, Diesel and 7 For All Mankind.

He expects some criticism from the art establishment. "There is still elitism in the art world, especially when it comes to things getting popular, but all my work deals with popular culture. I always look for places with the biggest audience, as I want to see people's reaction to it."

The forthcoming exhibition is the latest in a series of shows and collaborations for Selfridges, events that suggest the landmark department store is styling itself as a rival to the city's established art galleries: its creative director, Alannah Weston, is a regular on the contemporary art circuit. Last May, the store hosted a huge urban art fair, with rare and unseen pieces from the leading street artists Banksy, Adam Neate and Nick Walker on show.

"Selfridges approached me about the collaboration. It is moving much more into the contemporary art world," Semple said.