Last week, Milan hosted its annual Salone del Mobile furniture fair and design week. During Salone, designers and manufacturers pull out all the stops to present their best work to the more than 300,000 people who flock to Milan for the fair. Think of it as the furniture industry's fashion week.

[Photo: courtesy Formafantasma]

Formafantasma for FLOS

Known for exploring artisan craftsmanship, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin launched their first production pieces at Euroluce, the biannual lighting fair that takes place within Salone del Mobile. The Italian designers, who are based in Amsterdam, created two pieces for the lighting brand FLOS. Blush, an LED lamp outfitted with dichroic film, creates an iridescent shadow that evokes the memory of a summer's day. Meanwhile, Wire Ring is composed of an LED hoop that's held to the wall by its cord–a clever use of a light's wiring.

[Photo: courtesy Ventura Lambrate]

Acoustic Landscapes by Robin Pleun

Robin Pleun, a recent graduate from the Netherlands' prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven, created sound-dampening textiles that require both digital cutting and hand-weaving to fabricate.

[Photo: courtesy Ventura Lambrate]

Terrazzo furniture by Alberto Bellamoli

For designer Alberto Bellamoli, terrazzo–a composite material made from stone fragments set in concrete–holds a special place in the cultural history of Italy. It's a material that's still made by a small group of artisans near his hometown of Verona. Here, he made his own version of the material using offcuts and waste from marble fabrication.

[Photo: courtesy Ventura Lambrate]

Ecopixel Terrazzo

While most terrazzo is made from stone, Ecopixel makes its own from a low-density plastic that melts at a low temperature and can be remelted over and over again, meaning that there's virtually no waste material. The company worked with Alessandro Mendini–one of Italy's iconic designers–to create a chaise lounge using the material.

[Photo: courtesy Ventura Lambrate]

Impose Ceramics by Handmade Industrials

Designers Rutger de Regt and Marlies van Putten, who are based in the Hague, used a flexible mold to produce these ceramics. While it's a standardized process, the results are different each time based on how they manipulate the mold.

[Photo: courtesy Ventura Lambrate]

Embracing Touch Jewelry by Marija Puipaite

Interested in the many shapes and forms the human body can yield, Marija Puipaite created a line of jewelry made from molds of various body parts: wrists, knuckles, collar bones, and even an ear. To create the metallic pieces, she uses molds made from wax forms that have melted under body heat.

[Photo: courtesy Ventura Lambrate]

Dispersion Mirror by Nila Rezaei

An interactive piece by the Sydney-based designer Nila Rezaei, Dispersion is intended to get people thinking about the environmental devastation caused by oil spills and oil extraction. She coated the mirror with a heat-activated pigment. When the lamp heats up, it becomes black. People are invited to "clean up" the ink by blowing onto it, revealing the pink surface beneath.

[Photo: courtesy Ventura Lambrate]

Visible Light by One Design Space

Designer Dessislava Madanska's interactive, prismatic lamp is composed of colored plastic. When you rotate the lamp, the colors change the light's tone. (Think of it as a much nicer, analog version of a Hue bulb.)

[Photo: Luke Hayes]

The Time Machine by Lee Broom

Ever a master of theatrical presentations, British designer Lee Broom celebrated his studio's 10th anniversary by creating a carousel-like "time machine" of some of his greatest hits. And further riffing on the notion of time, Broom designed a new marble grandfather clock that debuted at Salone.

[Photo: courtesy Punkt]

Urban Mobility Project by Punkt

The Swiss brand Punkt–an electronics company that takes a more mindful approach to tech–collaborated with design students to reinvent the bicycle for urban use. We liked the Design Academy Eindhoven's contribution: a bike that lets two people ride together comfortably, no need for piggybacking or handlebar acrobatics.

[Photo: Akihiro Yoshida/courtesy Nendo]

Nendo for Jil Sander

Nendo, the Japanese design firm headed by Oki Sato, created two projects for the minimalist German fashion brand Jil Sander. One was an accessories line emblazoned with Yayoi Kusama-esque polka dots. Another, a series of silicon vases that look and act like jellyfish–which were displayed with an unusual presentation: immersed in an aquarium.

[Image: Neri Oxman and The Mediated Matter Group/MIT Media Lab in Collaboration with Lexus]

Yet by Neri Oxman for Lexus

In conjunction with the Lexus Design Award, Neri Oxman and the MIT Mediated Matter Group created a glass installation—made from a 3D printer that MIT developed in 2015–that emits painterly shadows.

[Photo: courtesy Hermès]

Hermès Collection for the Home

For its collection of furniture and accessories, the French fashion brand collaborated with renowned architects and designers like Alvaro Siza (bamboo stools), Barber Osgerby (a cast-bronze coffee table), and Pierre Charpin (lacquered-leather change trays). But what really stood out was Hermes's elaborate presentation in a pavilion by architect Charlotte Macaux-Perelman and set designer Hervé Sauvage.

[Photo: courtesy Tom Dixon]

Veterans by Tom Dixon

British designer Tom Dixon looked to his archives for his 2017 furniture collection, which included reengineered versions of his S chair, Bird chaise, Pylon chair, and Jack lamp–a move that makes sense, seeing as how he once told Co.Design that one of the biggest challenges for designers today is asking if it's legitimate to put more products into the world.

[Photo: courtesy Bang & Olufsen]

BeoSound Shape Lifestyle by Bang & Olufsen

The Danish electronics brand is known for creating speakers and sound systems that blend in with fancy living rooms, and its Sound Shape system is no exception. The wireless speakers hang on the wall like a sculpture and also have sound-dampening qualities when not in use.