John Wade was born in the small Southern California town of Redlands. At age two, his family relocated to an even smaller town in the deserts north east of Los Angeles called Apple Valley. It is there where John was raised and spent the first few years of his adult life. After two years in junior college, he left for Los Angeles to finish up his bachelor's degree in fashion design at California State University Northridge.

While in college, John took a specific interest in designing costumes for stage and film. He pursued this line of work as the assistant costumer for the community college and went on to fully designed costumes for local independent films. Upon graduation John began regularly designing commissioned custom pieces in addition to styling clients for film and television, all while working full time in a high-end retail shop. John is still unsure if his career will err more toward costumes or couture, so he continues to broaden his design experience, most recently with the help of "Project Runway."