(Above image: Charlotte Perriand’s sofa for Saint Laurent. Photo courtesy of Saint Laurent)

This was originally published in the April 28 issue of Officeinsight

Think about one of your favorite objects, whether it’s a piece of furniture or a treasured tchotchke. What do you love about it? Chances are the answer is deeper than color, fabric, or shape. Our most prized possessions often have a story — either a memory we’ve grafted onto the object, or a narrative from the designer that inspired that particular work.

(Among my own favorite things: A tiny ceramic sculpture of a pair of feet, which will forever remind me of a dear friend’s 40th birthday trip to Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende; and a Japanese-inspired bed created by a Chicago designer who merged his love of furniture with his family business to create something new.)

Good design and good stories often go hand in hand, and the best creators and brands know how to fuse the two. At this year’s Salone del Mobile, the massive furniture fair at the center of Milan Design Week, there were innumerable examples of design excellence and savvy storytelling on display. Below, you’ll find three of our favorites.

A feathery furniture collection inspired by a Muppet

Not all Muppets are created equal. When we call to mind the iconic puppets created by Jim Henson, most people probably think of Kermit the Frog or Miss Piggy. But Slovenian-born, London-based designer Lara Bohinc was especially tickled by Betsy Bird, a lesser-known dancing Muppet. That childhood delight inspired a new home furnishings collection she created with Turkish leather brand Uniqka, which includes a bench; coffee, side, and console tables; and a mirror. To create the illusion of feathers, each piece is covered with small flaps of leather affixed to wooden frames.

“Whenever you see a cute animal, you want to stroke it, you want to touch it, and this one’s not going to run away, so you can play with it,” Bohinc told The New York Times. When an object becomes “something that almost seems alive, something that you want to play with, it’s got its own personality” she said. That tactile aspect — along with an intriguing backstory — makes these items irresistible.

A moody, immersive installation pulled straight from a movie

Haven’t heard of Italian luxury fashion brand Loro Piana? There’s a good chance you’ve seen their wares in “Succession” (there was much ado about Kendall Roy’s $625 cashmere baseball cap). Offscreen, Loro Piana made a splash at this year’s Salone del Mobile — in a scene that felt very much like it could’ve been onscreen. In a buzzy installation, titled La Prima Notte di Quiete and set at the brand’s headquarters, Loro Piana partnered with design firm Dimorestudio to create a dramatic, 1970s-era apartment that seemed like it was lifted from a film (a thriller, no doubt) — picture an unmade bed, an overflowing bathtub, and sounds of thundering rain, smashing plates, and heavy footsteps above.

The faux apartment was filled with very real, very sumptuous furniture designed by Dimoremilano (the furniture line of Dimorestudio) for Loro Piana Interiors, including an eye-catching circular bed and moss green velvety chairs, along with moody art and antiques. “The plausibility is achieved by the perfect balance of the décor, where distinct objects of various natures and origins coexist, as in homes where the sophisticated taste of the inhabitants is expressed through never-banal choices,” Dimorestudio told Wallpaper.

Rare furniture from a design-world icon

Sometimes, the best way to move forward is to look back. Saint Laurent embraced that philosophy: The brand reached into the past to exhume decades-old furniture sketches from French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand to create some never-before-seen (at least not in three dimensions) furniture from her prototypes.

The furniture sketches, created between 1943 and 1967, speak to distinct moments in Perriand’s home and work life, including the Rio de Janeiro bookshelf — so named because she designed it for her husband when he was living in the Brazilian city in the ’60s — and a 23-foot long sofa she designed in 1967 for the Japanese ambassador’s Paris residence.

One item, the Mille-feuilles table Perriand imagined in 1963, is made from two varieties of wood in 10 layers, and was never produced before now because of the manufacturing challenges it posed. Perriand’s pieces were on display at Salone in an exhibition titled Saint Laurent — Charlotte Perriand, curated by designer Anthony Vaccarello, and will live on afterwards; they’re available on a limited, made-to-order basis.