Sure, there are still negative connotations to contend with—lawn chairs, dorm-room décor—but new high-design plastic furniture has more in common with the work of sixties Italian masters like Enzo Mari than with anything you'd see in the aisles at Kmart. Monica Khemsurov

1. Myto chair by Konstantin Grcic for Plank ($275)

Photography courtesy of Plank
German designer Konstantin Grcic fused a classic cantilever shape with modular seventies construction for his new chair, made from a specially engineered plastic.

2. Drift bench by FutureSystems for Established & Sons ($21,500 as shown)

Photograph courtesy of Established & Sons
This high-gloss polyurethane bench—by the firm that did the tubular-aluminum entrance to the Comme des Garçons store in New York—is named for its doppelgänger: a piece of driftwood.

3. Opus Incertum bookshelf by Sean Yoo for Casamania ($629 as shown)

Photograph courtesy of Casamania
Constructed from a tougher version of Styrofoam, these honeycomb-shaped shelves can be stacked, used as room dividers, or even put on the patio.

4. Torch Lamp by Sylvain Willenz for Established & Sons (price on request)

Photograph courtesy of Established & Sons
A cross between car headlights and flashlights, this cartoonish lamp is Belgian Sylvain Willenz's first contribution to Britain's leading furniture-design house, Established & Sons.

5. Anglepoise Fifty lamp by Anthony Dickens ($79), anglepoise.com

Photography courtesy of Anthony Dickens
Young Brit Anthony Dickens offers a new take on the Anglepoise task lamp, imprinting its iconic shape, fossillike, in transparent plastic.