THE TORSO BECOMES A TRASHCAN IN THE WORLD'S TOP HOUSEWARES SHOW

       Squeeze lemons on a pair of breasts or chuck the trash into a lifelike life-sized posterior.
       After contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, whose recreated skulls fetch record prices on the art maket, designers increasingly are basing objects for everyday life on all sorts of body parts.
       "The human body has become a source of inspiration," said trendspotter Francois Bernard at the Maison and Objet trade fair, one of the world's top home shows taking place in Paris this week.
       There were chairs covered in hair from Austria, internal organs doubling up a swater-bottles from Denmark, and porcelain fingers and hands beckoning to be used as coat hooks.
       A Dutch garbage bin titled "Fill Bill" came in the shape of a man bent over double a the waist, his open posterior ready for the trash.
"The body has been very much in focus in Western society, in plastic surgery and the obsession with exercies, but only recently has featured strongly in art," added Bernard. "The body, natre, life forms, are a primary influence."
       Alongside a stool pretending to be a brain and a chair a skull - iconic pieces from Ukraineborn designer vladi Repaport-came pieces closer to Mother Nature than to her earthlings.
       Desinger darling Philippe Starck's latest creations are tall womb-like seats topped by hanging gardens, while tiny nomadic apartment gardens that can hang upside down or be moved around were on show by France's Green works.
       "After the economic crisis, people want to be protected and enveloped. Designers are inspired by the softness of nature," said trend-watcher Vincent Gregoire.
       Exploring the possibilities of low energy lighting as the world prepares to do away with incandescent lighting, a young Dutch duo connected actual dandelions to a light-emitting diode circuit to produce rivers of soft natural light.
       "The little luminous sculpture reconciles nature and technology," said Drift Design.
       Another technologicall lighting effor ttitled Fiat Lux was a lamp whose sphere-shaped switch levitates int he air when the light is on and attaches to the lampshade magnetically when the light is switched off. "the user becomes a magician," said designer Constance Guisset.
       Another innovation is a concrete wall that doubles as a sound system.
       "People want to stay close to mother nature, to authnticity, to the past," said award-winning architect Vincent Van Dysen. "They are attracted by purity."