Cool Hunting

With the design industry's most revered furniture fair only a few weeks away, the sneak peeks are emerging, only to show a new sector that will take notice at this year's Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. Stemming from the German book "Love Design," an exhibition of the same name will take up residence at the fair, displaying sex toys and other objects "that question the very meaning of the word 'love,' the beginning and the end of what binds us together and tears us apart."

Sex toys may seem an unlikely fit among the modern furnishings, but companies such as JimmyJane, Lelo and Mi-Su have proven that these sensual objects need not be stowed away in a drawer. The Milan exhibition takes it a step further—"Love Design" is a collection of objects that blur the distinction between furniture and erotica, executed by a cast of innovative designers.

Out of the 20 works on display, we particular like Arik Levy's wood jar with an extractable vibrator (top left), and Waveform by Sakurako Shimizu, which includes a collection of necklaces and rings laser-cut in the shape of digital sound waves, representing the voice of French actress Jeanne Moreau reading a love poem called “Cet Amour” (top right). From the young French designer Matali Crasset comes a sex toy called 8ème Ciel (8th Heaven) with eight metal balls that move freely inside a silicon massage pad (above left), while Matteo Cibic's bedside lamp exemplifies the muddled line by doubling as both a lamp and pleasure device (above right).

Read more at Fast Company.