Where Our Vintage Comes From and the Art of Searching, Selecting and Restoring
One of the questions we get asked the most is: where does your clothing come from? So we wanted to take a moment to share a little more about what happens behind the scenes, and the long, fascinating process that brings each piece to life at Wanda Core.
Our trusted vintage wholesalers
Part of our collection comes from vintage wholesalers who have been in the business for decades. They sell by the kilo or by the piece, exclusively to registered professionals in the sector. Over the years, we’ve built personal relationships with some of them, so even if they trade in large quantities, we always select every single item ourselves.
All our providers are based in Europe, mainly in Spain and Belgium, which is why most of our pieces come from European vintage sources. Belgium holds a special place in our story: it’s where we lived in the early days of Wanda Core and where we first began shaping our vision. The country also hides some truly incredible vintage, from small boutiques and warehouses to open-air markets we still love to visit whenever we can.
Travels and rare finds
Sometimes we also find treasures while traveling across Europe or around the world, visiting markets and all kinds of thrift stores wherever we go. Every once in a while, we stumble upon a piece so iconic, so special, that there’s simply no way we can leave it behind.
We also occasionally source from private collections or individual sellers, especially when we’re searching for very specific, hard-to-find pieces we’ve been chasing for a long time.
On rarity and the trained eye
When you see a certain piece, the idea of rarity often comes down to one question: How many times in your life do you think you’ll come across this exact garment again? The fewer the chances, the more unique and valuable it becomes.
Over time, your eye gets trained, you start knowing instantly whether something will reappear or not. But of course, life (and vintage) always finds ways to surprise you.
Restoration and care
After gathering all the pieces from these different sources, we begin the restoration and cataloguing process. Many garments need washing, mending, or small adjustments, who would’ve thought we’d spend so many hours sewing buttons?
Our atelier now has a dedicated space for repairs, with the sewing machine always ready for a new project. This part of the work is slow, meticulous, and often invisible, yet it’s part of the practice, almost like exercising vintage itself.
If you live surrounded by vintage, you probably know the feeling: constantly falling in love with pieces that aren’t your size, and learning to sew just so you can wear that one specific garment. That takes a special kind of patience and devotion, something deeply tied to the vintage lifestyle.
Seeing beauty in what was forgotten
Searching, re-searching, and seeing potential in piles of wrinkled, forgotten fabric is slow and tedious, it can take days, even months. But honestly, finding opportunity and beauty in discarded, broken, and imperfect pieces is one of the most rewarding and meaningful parts of this work. It’s also one of the least shown on social media, because it isn’t glamorous, it’s more like archaeological work, recovering and preserving small cultural assets that might otherwise disappear.
When people see the final result, they often only see the beauty, the perfection of something that had been discarded for years and now stands before them, restored, because someone, somewhere, once said: “I’ll give you another chance.” And that’s the heart of what we do. We’re endlessly happy to share it with all of you.
