Unrelenting snow and sleet were no match for the camera-obsessed masses who came out to rag & bone’s TriBeCa men’s store during a recent winter evening, as the festivities came with a promise that all party guests would get a first look at the Leica M Monochrome Stealth Edition. Some lucky attendees could even pick it up from its sleek display case — that is, if they set their cocktail aside and put on a pair of white gloves to handle it.
The camera, designed in collaboration with rag & bone’s founder, CEO, and creative director Marcus Wainwright, is indeed a stealth study in minimalism. While the traditional Leica M is available in a rainbow of leather-wrapped colorways like dark blue, khaki, and boysenberry, detailed with stark white markings to indicate the camera’s many nuanced functions, the Stealth Edition instead delivers an all-black design.
“What I try and do with everything is to take it and try and make it better,” Wainright told the room of his choice to completely black out the iconic gadget. “With something that is already pretty perfect, it was very hard. When I design something I try to think on a subconscious level, is there anything about the object that doesn’t necessarily bother me, but that I subconsciously notice? There’s probably something in your house that bothers you, like a squeaking hinge on a door. It’s very simple to fix, you could just oil the hinge. But instead, you spend 3 years subconsciously irritated by it, but not enough that you would go and get the oil. Your life would be that much better if you got the oil.”
With the blessing of Leica’s top brass, Wainright sought his proverbial oil, integrating a suite of accents that include a matte leather wrapping and knurling on the aperture ring for a better hand-feel. It also boasts glow-in-the-dark markings, never before seen on a Leica, that serves as both a functional detail and a novelty. “I always thought you should be able to take a photo in the dark, and these accents make that much easier,” he said, but later admitted. “It also just looks really cool.”
In his half-hour long candid conversation, the renowned designed also admitted that creating his camera was approached the same way as a pair of his own jeans – complete with their unmistakable, copyrighted buttons and rivets. “My brain works in a particular way,” he said. “In terms of clothing, I get very stressed by frilly paraphernalia that isn’t necessary and I’m obsessed with function. It’s not a reductionist thing all the time, but it’s about reducing something to its purest form to create a perfect garment. When I look at something, and it doesn’t fit, and the details aren’t right, or the balance of the pocket isn’t right – all of those things stress me out. My brain tries to work towards a pure form. It’s like a Savile Row suit. It’s perfect and there’s a complete absence of chaos.”
Wainright, a self-proclaimed camera addict himself who has an estimated collection of over 50 Leica cameras that he shares with his wife and two children, is among this cult following, known for sporting their photo snapping weaponry across their shoulders at all hours of the day. The Leica M Monochrome Stealth Edition, which comes along with a $15,750 price tag, is limited to just 125 units worldwide and will surely scare off any novices. Instead, this particular creation is meant for the Leica loyalists who were due to see something entirely new.
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