What did Adolf Loos mean when he stated that “ornament . . . [was] a crime?” Has a law been broken? If so, who committed it? Perhaps on a superficial level, we can assume that Loos was talking about some type of law or rule, but if we look deeper into the condition of mass production at his time, we can see why such a statement was made. Mass consumerism was at a high in the early 20th century and seeing an opportunity to take advantage of this demand for visual form, “Department stores (and the mass production industry). . . actively incit[ed] consumers to desire novelty.” Despite the abuse of consumerism, some designers continue to produce goods that are beautiful, and functional. Like Gottfried Semper’s theory of “the inevitab[le] . . . interrelationship between art and industry,” a lasting product needs both aesthetic and practical qualities.