kitschy cool?  

Are you willing to consider Jeff Koons art?
If you are going to include decorative art in the field of design, and I think it should be, because interior designers include art work in their interior designs for people, then you HAVE consider Jeff Koons, as practically definitive in kitsch. In fact, he has turned himself into a piece of kitsch in much the same way Andy Warhola created Andy Warhol and made that persona the embodiment of pop art.

THE GNOME tables
are a pure example of this as you will find...

recent white cactus re edition
remark that Gufram is not new on the market, and has for decades done similar stuff. However, they now recently release the albino cactus..
http://www.italiandesign360.com/ARTICLES_ARCHIVES/2007/May/Cactus_became...

Campana bros
It might also be worth it to look into the work of the much revered Campana bros (.. and the price of their work)
http://www.mossonline.com/product-exec/product_id/41316/category_id/36

Studio Job
winning a lot of awards these days. If not mistaken, they did win multiple ELLE awards and more. Skeletons, blown up swords, etc. are all collection pieces. Pricey.
http://www.mossonline.com/category-exec/category_id/436

gimmick
in general: the surge of all gimmick things posing as something that they are not.
http://www.thorstenvanelten.com/products/?category_id=9&product_id=31

bis
a more famous example:
http://www.thorstenvanelten.com/products/?category_id=9&product_id=52

well
stephen, nowadays in the belgian design museum in ghent there is an exhibition called; kitch, camp or design. come and visit it! (a lot of starck stuff; like the gnome tables and riotlights) kitch can also be found by koziol (and as you mentioned alessi)

oh
and not to forget garouste and bonetti...

cappellini classic
kitsch can be found in all decades, or so it seems. This chair reminds me of the 80s. Ohhh Memphis.
http://portal.cappellini.it:7778/portal/page/portal/Prodotti/1_Collezion...

Is it a horse ? Or is it a lamp ?
another more recent one.
http://www.unicahome.com/p34511/moooi/horse-lamp-by-front.html

I would say that the Louis...
I would say that the Louis Ghost chair is kitsch.
Reason why its kitsch:
It imitates some shapes and some structures that are used in artisan craft to facilitate
the production of wooden chairs. Because in the industrial design of a crystal chair
there no needs for it, I would say that the Louis Ghost chair is kitsch.
On the contrary personally, unlike many, I dont think that the Proust chair
by Mendini is.
Then, when it comes to some of the things he did for Alessi, like Anna G, or
for Venini, like Guerriero di Vetro. I wouldnt describe them as kitsch,
but just disturbing, or negative.
http://www.designdictionary.co.uk/ENG/mendini.htm

Aarnio: the screw table and...
Aarnio: the screw table and the pony (which got a recent reworked little brother)
http://www.eero-aarnio.com/28/Objects/Screw_Tables.htm

To Kitch or not to kitch
I'd disagree that the Ghost Charis kitch. I'm not a big Starck fan, but I must say that that chair is a beautiful form and elegantly rendered from the original concept. It also pays homage to it's inspiration. So I'd classify it as aderivative design or a classically-inspired piece, but I think it transcends the kitch label. I, personally, love a few kitchy things around. We have aspongebob decorated guest bath that we find terribly amusing and it borders on tacky for sure.
I'd agree with gerrit.be that Koziol is an excellent example of kitch. And their products are actually quite useful and functional. Alessi also offer a good number of quirky house products that I think fall squarely into the kitch realm.
As for the Starke gnome I think it's just completely tasteless and I wouldn't even give it the kitch rating. I feel pretty much the same about Jeff Koontz!