Yugo-chic luminaries, furniture, and interiors
Yugo-chic luminaries, furniture, and interiors
Detail of Nina Savič‘s working process || photo: courtesy of Jugošik
In the field of interior design, Jugošik stands out as one of the boldest and freshest concepts in our region, grounding its sustainable designs of lighting and furniture in both the material and symbolic heritage of Yugoslavia’s industry. All pieces created by this brand are based on the upcycling of vintage objects once mass-produced by Yugoslav factories. Jugošik is based in Ljubljana, so this process most often involves the transformation of outdated pieces from Slovenian interiors – items produced by local lighting and furniture factories that operated from the end of World War II until the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. What distinguishes Jugošik’s creative process is that vintage pieces are not treated as mere raw material to be repurposed into something new, but rather as objects whose original aesthetic is preserved and reimagined.
I envision Jugošik evolving into an interior design studio with a strong focus on lighting and furniture – one that helps shift the perception of second-hand objects, making their use a natural and logical choice when renovating or furnishing a home. I would like to work within a team of complementary partners – architects, interior designers, manufacturers, artists, and storytellers – to build a truly integrated and sustainable design practice that proudly reflects the authenticity and character of our region.
– Nina Savič, for Creative Glass Serbia, 2025
Big idea
Founded in 2021, this brand has been attracting increasing attention from both experts and the wider public not only for its fresh reinterpretations of Yugoslav industrial design heritage, but also for the clear and powerful vision of its founder, Nina Savič, who has much more to offer. For years, she has been thinking about solutions for the circular economy and sustainable furniture design, aiming to reduce waste while opening up new avenues of creativity. Among her proposals are municipal and city workshops where citizens could repair and redesign their own furniture, as well as depots for discarded construction materials that can be reused. She also leads by example – collecting and upcycling outdated pieces, offering interior design services that reuse existing furniture, promoting her guide, Five Ideas for Styling Your Space the Jugošik Way, and developing 3D-printed components to make lamp upcycling easier at home.
Founded in 2021, this brand has been attracting increasing attention from both experts and the wider public not only for its fresh reinterpretations of Yugoslav industrial design heritage, but also for the clear and powerful vision of its founder, Nina Savič, who has much more to offer. For years, she has been thinking about solutions for the circular economy and sustainable furniture design, aiming to reduce waste while opening up new avenues of creativity. Among her proposals are municipal and city workshops where citizens could repair and redesign their own furniture, as well as depots for discarded construction materials that can be reused. She also leads by example – collecting and upcycling outdated pieces, offering interior design services that reuse existing furniture, promoting her guide, Five Ideas for Styling Your Space the Jugošik Way, and developing 3D-printed components to make lamp upcycling easier at home.
I am convinced that this way it is possible to reduce the impact on the environment twice – by reusing something old, it is possible to reduce the amount of waste, and at the same time limit the purchase of new things and create unique pieces.
– Nina Savič, for DELO, 2023
When I started renovating my apartment, I worked in the yard, on the balcony, even in my bedroom. In any case, it seems to me that it would be reasonable for Ljubljana to have a place where people could repair and restore things. Some kind of workshop, with enough space for larger pieces, and where all the tools would be available... I think many people are interested in repairing and reusing things, but they simply don’t have the time or motivation, especially the proper space and tools. Some only need advice...
– Nina Savič, for KAJŽA, 2021
I think it would be interesting to establish some kind of information-sharing about larger renovation projects. That way, for example, during the renovation of a hotel or a larger building, I could acquire a large quantity of identical pieces of furniture all at once, and then use them for the renovation of buildings of a different profile, such as a student dormitory. This would give the entire Jugošik undertaking a completely different dimension, and in this I see great opportunities for collaboration with architects who work on renovating larger buildings, both in terms of exchanging information and raising awareness.
– Nina Savič, for KAJŽA, 2021
A problem is half a solution
Such a deep and strong source of inspiration Nina discovered spontaneously, looking for furniture to equip the living room of her renovated apartment. Since she couldn’t find anything she liked in the shops, her thoughts turned to a black cabinet that had been with her for years. It first stood in the living room of the apartment where she grew up, then in the house they moved into, and finally in her father’s office, before ending up in the basement, destined to be thrown away. Determined to give it a new life, she asked a carpenter to cut off its base and mount it on four elegant legs, and commissioned a new top from a stonecutter. She also replaced the cabinet handles, and that is how the very first Jugošik piece was born.
Such a deep and strong source of inspiration Nina discovered spontaneously, looking for furniture to equip the living room of her renovated apartment. Since she couldn’t find anything she liked in the shops, her thoughts turned to a black cabinet that had been with her for years. It first stood in the living room of the apartment where she grew up, then in the house they moved into, and finally in her father’s office, before ending up in the basement, destined to be thrown away. Determined to give it a new life, she asked a carpenter to cut off its base and mount it on four elegant legs, and commissioned a new top from a stonecutter. She also replaced the cabinet handles, and that is how the very first Jugošik piece was born.
Stories from life in the cultural space of Yugoslavia
She first heard the words “Yugo chic” in the music of Tetkina radost, a mixtape project by a Slovenian DJ collective experimenting with popular Yugoslav genres. The phrase struck her as the perfect description of exactly what she wanted to do – give old Yugoslav furniture a new, chic look. Born in 1990, she has no personal memories of Yugoslavia but is well aware of Slovenian interiors, still largely furnished with pieces from the Yugoslav era, and of the inevitable nostalgic references to “how it used to be”. She believes that if she had been born elsewhere and interested in the same things, her work would carry a different prefix and symbolic content, but she would have remained faithful to minimalism and elegance as timeless values of chic fashion.
She first heard the words “Yugo chic” in the music of Tetkina radost, a mixtape project by a Slovenian DJ collective experimenting with popular Yugoslav genres. The phrase struck her as the perfect description of exactly what she wanted to do – give old Yugoslav furniture a new, chic look. Born in 1990, she has no personal memories of Yugoslavia but is well aware of Slovenian interiors, still largely furnished with pieces from the Yugoslav era, and of the inevitable nostalgic references to “how it used to be”. She believes that if she had been born elsewhere and interested in the same things, her work would carry a different prefix and symbolic content, but she would have remained faithful to minimalism and elegance as timeless values of chic fashion.
Nina creates Jugošik pieces by collecting and upcycling vintage lighting and furniture. At the moment, she is primarily focused on making pendant lamps, since in 2024 she managed to purchase the entire attic of a collector – about 300 old glass lamps and chandeliers, originally produced by the glassworks Hrastnik (Sijaj Hrastnik) and EMI Poljčane, or larger furniture factories (Meblo, Javor, etc.). The usual sources she relies on include Reuse Centres, vintage resale groups, and global and local online marketplaces. Yet just as often, the objects seem to find her – spotted by chance next to a dumpster, for instance, or arriving as gifts through unusual twists of circumstance.
What makes Jugošik really special is the fact that Nina is not interested in cult objects whose market value keeps rising, such as Niko Kralj’s Rex chair or Meblo’s Guzzini chandeliers and lamps, but rather in the more ordinary expressions of Yugoslav industrial design that first struggled with kitsch and utilitarian aesthetics of real socialism, but from the late 1960s began producing a wealth of modern pieces. These not-so-famous objects are, in fact, familiar to everyone, and it is precisely this familiarity that makes them worth the designer’s effort.
To create value where there is objectively likely none seems to me the greatest challenge. I work with anonymous furniture, to which I give character once I assemble it... Of course, I would be happy if I happened to find a Meblo lamp on the street, but I think the greater challenge is to use chandeliers that nobody really uses anymore, because they are too kitschy or completely outdated. I like to work with pieces in which I myself see some quality, or notice that they could shine in a different combination, in a different role.
– Nina Savič, for KAJŽA, 2021.
The stories of old furniture that reach Nina also inspire the names of all Jugošik lamps – Maja, Irena, Smiljana, Brina, and others. The online boutique features more than 120 original lamps, each with its own name, which is just a small fraction of what can be found in the studio.
I like to name the lights by the people I know myself, or by my clients or the people who gave me their lights. It is true, however, that the number of lamps is growing rapidly, and it is becoming difficult to find names for everyone. That's why I bought a lexicon of names in the antique shop, from which I find inspiration.
– Nina Savič, for Delo in dom, 2025
For most interior renovation projects, Jugošik lamps are also appealing because of their affordable price. Even when architects oversee a renovation, lighting is often overlooked, or the choice of fixtures is left until the very end, when there is usually little or no budget left. As a result, many interiors remain unfinished, like a cake without frosting. In such cases, Jugošik’s upcycling approach is among the best solutions.
Studio and library of materials
In addition to the usual glass shades, light fixtures, especially the chandeliers, also have a lot of metal parts, various shapes, and some glass ornaments, wooden, lathe-shaped accessories ... Finding combinations for new fixtures, which I assemble from these parts, is always interesting to me, like a game that I do not get tired of.
– Nina Savič, for Dominvrt.si, 2022
In addition to the usual glass shades, light fixtures, especially the chandeliers, also have a lot of metal parts, various shapes, and some glass ornaments, wooden, lathe-shaped accessories ... Finding combinations for new fixtures, which I assemble from these parts, is always interesting to me, like a game that I do not get tired of.
– Nina Savič, for Dominvrt.si, 2022
So far, I have a solution for two types of pendant lamps and wall lamps, for which I also received a test report from the SIQ Institute, which ensures compliance with safety standards for the manufacture of luminaires. I am especially proud of this, as it signals that reused luminaires can be seen as equivalent to the new ones on the market, which is a very sustainable step.
– Nina Savič, for Delo in dom, 2025
Nina has moved her studio in Ljubljana several times. She was first on Prisojna Street, then in the space of the railway underpass, and since October 2024, she has been in an industrial complex on Vilharjeva Street, just behind the main train station. She shares this large space with the studios of Hana Karim, Alenka Repič (Kaaita), and Tatjana Kotnik (Tati). All of them design and handcraft their own sustainable products, and they agree that pop-up exhibitions are one of the best ways to attract new clients.
Collaboration with artisans
While she creates pendant and table lamps entirely on her own, for furniture production, Nina relies on the work of other artisans, most often carpenters. Finding craftsmen willing to work on unique pieces is not easy, but Nina wins them over with well-conceived projects, technical drawings that eliminate misunderstandings and unnecessary extra work, and good preparation of sheet materials.
She acquired furniture restoration skills through a course with Stanko Vitez, while her expertise in lighting is self-taught, as courses in that field still do not exist. After participating in the Crafted in Istanbul, where designers reside at the Technical University of Istanbul to study the work of local traditional artisans and put them on the city map for various tourists, she also gained a much deeper understanding of the challenges and desires of artisans in Slovenia.
She acquired furniture restoration skills through a course with Stanko Vitez, while her expertise in lighting is self-taught, as courses in that field still do not exist. After participating in the Crafted in Istanbul, where designers reside at the Technical University of Istanbul to study the work of local traditional artisans and put them on the city map for various tourists, she also gained a much deeper understanding of the challenges and desires of artisans in Slovenia.
There are many new retro products available, which, unlike vintage, just imitate the style of the past, but we have real raw materials in the attics and basements to make more authentic pieces. My work communicates that the piece does not have to be fully preserved; we can only use parts that are still useful and combine them, e.g. handles, doors, chests of drawers, which are usually made of higher quality materials.
– Nina Savič, for Dominvrt.si, 2022
Brand development
Although it has been around for less than five years, Jugošik has already received two major Slovenian awards – one for its outstanding approach to furniture design (Top Ideje 2023 awarded by Ambient and Dom Plus) and another for Best Interior of the Year 2025 (BIG SEE). Through her participation in the mentorship program of the Slovenian Creativity Centre, Nina also secured a scholarship that will cover the cost of a year-long use of the Rog Centre’s studio for development projects, where she will create original 3D-printed modular components for lamp renovation.
Although Jugošik has existed for less than five years, it has already been recognised for its outstanding approach to furniture design (Top ideje 2023, Ambient & Dom plus) and showcased at major architecture fairs (BIG Architecture 2024), as well as numerous smaller design and art festivals. Through her participation in the mentorship program of the Slovenian Creativity Centre, Nina also secured a scholarship that will cover the cost of a year-long use of the Rog Centre’s studio for development projects, where she will create original 3D-printed modular components for lamp renovation.
She also used her status as a resident artist at the Slovenian Cultural and Information Centre in Vienna as an opportunity to collaborate with glass artist Nathalie Flückiger. As part of an international project aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of European SMEs (Worth II, 2021–2025), the two of them designed an innovative lamp, BrightsideUP, made from recycled cosmetic bottles, actually production waste from Virospack, a Spanish manufacturer of glass packaging for cosmetics. They presented the lamp during Milan Design Week 2024, and Nina ventured into a new area of interest: how to transform industrial waste into well-designed sustainable products, or even new materials.
Collaborating with Nathalie Flückiger was a truly valuable experience that deepened my understanding of glass techniques. In the future, I would love to collaborate on a project with a lighting design and production company such as Curiousa Studio, which creates bespoke lighting objects that beautifully balance craftsmanship and design. I am particularly interested in merging traditional craft knowledge with upcycling techniques to reveal the creative potential of vintage materials. The work of Ettore Sottsass also inspires me to explore ways of connecting different lampshades to create playful yet coherent lighting pieces that unite functionality with sculptural expression.
– Nina Savič, for Creative Glass Serbia, 2025
Empowerment through a healthy relationship with the past
With her Jugošik creations, Nina Savič brings into interiors both the warmth of cherished memories and the enthusiasm of Yugoslavia’s postwar industrialisation – a period that raised the culture of housing and helped shape the country’s positive image abroad. Through her work, outdated furniture, often burdened with the legacy of Yugoslavia’s and Yugoslavs’ failure as well, regains value and relevance, taking on a new role as a keeper of memories.
It seems that Jugošik’s creations add the most value to newly built, often generically designed apartments, where they become special pieces that connect residents with another era, and turn a uniform space into a home. They also refresh eclectic interiors of period apartments, bringing sentimental value in a modern form. This is something that cannot be achieved with new, mass-produced furniture, which always lacks a crucial ingredient of quality – time. Nina has also long dreamed of designing public spaces in the Jugošik style, and her greatest wish is to create the interior of a café.
I would love to furnish a public space — especially a café or a restaurant. I can also imagine designing a library with cozy reading corners illuminated by upcycled Jugošik lamps. However, creating a coffee shop has been a long-time dream of mine. There are so many layers through which the design of such a space can touch and connect people — from lighting, chairs, and tables to wall decorations, tableware, and even the taste of food and drinks themselves.
I once visited an inspiring café project in Vienna called Vollpension, where elderly people prepared and served cakes and drinks, and even hosted cake-making workshops. That concept moved me deeply, as it not only offered a warm, welcoming atmosphere but also strengthened community bonds. I hope to one day collaborate on a similar project — or perhaps even create one myself.
– Nina Savič, for Creative Glass Serbia, 2025
Beyond its obvious contribution to environmental sustainability, Jugošik also appears to play an important role in the emotional empowerment of its clients. One young woman noted that the upcycled lamps reminded her of the home where she grew up, while she now decorates her own space. In this way, she can remain a child in memory and be an adult in charge of her life. Older clients also appreciate pieces that both preserve the past and remind them that life moves forward and continues to bring new, beautiful moments.
Even if one overlooks the fact that Nina Savič does all this with great style, which is certainly most important, the idea behind Jugošik remains missionary, even heroic, as it rescues the devalued cultural heritage from oblivion and transforms it into unique elements for contemporary interiors. Beyond being innovative and sustainable, these pieces also play a role in the inner transformation of individuals, families, and other communities, helping them to nurture a healthy relationship with the past.
For now, this brand is a tribute to the retro charm of furniture from the Yugoslav period, but with Nina Savič’s great vision, it could easily grow into a broader social movement, with its dedicated spaces, new working materials, networks, and fully renovated buildings. Every space influences thinking and sparks ideas, so it is likely that the current buyers of Jugošik products are already part of this emerging movement.
I believe that the future of design is based on reuse on the widest possible scale. Such an approach is sustainable both from the point of view of preserving the environment and the cultural heritage of the space – and at the same time it can be an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration and one’s own expression.
– Nina Savič, for Outsider, 2025
With vast amounts of old furniture stored in attics and basements across Slovenia, and many apartments and buildings still furnished with vintage pieces, it seems that Jugošik’s mission will never be exhausted. It is precisely for this reason that the brand is considered one of the boldest and freshest concepts in contemporary furniture design.
References
- Arsovski, N. (2023, November 20). Jugošik: šik svetila in pohištvo s pridihom nostalgije. Ambienti (OBLIKOVANJE).
- Bojc, S. (2023, November 11). Jugošik – nekaj novega z veliko starega. DELO (Zanimivosti).
- Bračić, A. (2021, December 2). Nina Savič: Jugošik: Srečen konec pozabljenih kosov. KAJŽA – stičišče za prenovo in trajnostno bivanje.
- Center Rog. (2025, July 28). Public call for the new generation of project studio users at Center Rog concluded. Center Rog (News).
- Center za kreativnost. (2024, October 3). Fourteen teams successfully developed their brands as part of the Creative Incubator. Center za kreativnost (News).
- Facebook. JUGOŠIK. (online). https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083130042535
- Jugošik. (online). https://jugosik.com/
- L.M. (2022, October 25). Nina Savič: ‘Ob zbiranju kosov pohištva in luči me vedno zanimajo tudi zgodbe, povezane z njimi’. Dominvrt.si (INTERIER).
- Redesign Everything. (online). JUGOŠIK. https://redesigneverything.whatdesigncando.com. (Project).
- Zorko, A. (2025, April 16). Jugošik svetila: Nove zgodbe pozabljenih kosov. Delo in dom (INTERIER), Delo mediji d.o.o.
- Žučko, A. (2025, May 12). Nina Savič, Jugošik: Stanovanje z recikliranim pohištvom in svetili. OUTSIDER by Z.O.P. – Zavod za oblikovanje prostora