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When most people hear the word luxury, they think of exclusivity: high-end materials, bespoke finishes, and designs tailored for the few. But a quiet revolution is underway. The true measure of luxury today is accessibility: designing environments that are beautiful, functional, safe, and empowering for every body. Nowhere is this more urgent, or more overlooked, than in the bathroom. According to the CDC, the bathroom is the most dangerous room in the house. There are 234,000 annual bathroom-related injuries in the U.S, with 81% caused by falls. For older adults, those falls can trigger a cascade of consequences: loss of independence, costly healthcare expenses, and a diminished quality of life. And yet, despite the bathroom being one of the most hazardous rooms in the home, its design has long been guided by aesthetics alone or, at the opposite extreme, clunky, clinical looking solutions that compromise dignity. At Michael Graves Design, weve sought to lead a paradigm shift proving that the future of luxury is accessibility. In our second collaboration with Pottery Barn, weve introduced a collection of accessible bathroom products: a vanity with integrated grab bar, a new grab frame inspired by garden trellises combining architectural elegance with versatile safety support, and discreet grab bars built into a towel bar and a toilet paper holder. The collection shows how safety and style can, and must, live side by side. ACCESSIBLE LUXURY ACROSS LIFES FULL ARC For decades, accessibility was treated as an afterthought, bolt-on products carrying the stigma of hospitals and institutions. This reinforced the false idea that you can either have a safe bathroom or a beautiful one, but not both. Our new collection challenges that assumption. A vanity can be refined, inviting, and intuitive while also being easy to navigate with limited mobility. A grab frame can be an interior design feature as much as a safety tool. Grab bars integrated into everyday accessories can blend seamlessly with surrounding materials, enhancing the overall space rather than detracting from it. But bathrooms arent only sites of risk; they are deeply emotional spaces. Theyre where we begin and end our days, where children learn independence, where parents find a moment of solitude, and where older adults maintain dignity and autonomy. Designing items for the bathroom means designing for lifes most intimate transitions. Thats why we think about the bathroom as both a present day necessity and a long-term investment in lifespan design. More households today are multigenerational, blending the needs of children, parents, and grandparents under one roof. Aging-in-place is a growing aspiration with enormous market implications. And temporary conditions, from injury to pregnancy to recovery from surgery, remind us accessibility is a universal human experience. The same toilet paper holder with integrated grab bar that provides peace of mind for an older adult may also serve a child learning to balance or a teenager recovering from an injury. The same vanity that feels luxurious to one person also offers essential reach, stability, and comfort to another. This is design as foresight: solutions that adapt gracefully to evolving household needs rather than forcing costly renovations later. By reframing accessibility as an essential part of luxury, not a limitation on it, we elevate the daily rituals of bathing, grooming, and self-care into experiences that feel dignified and restorative for every member of the household. This product strategy extends beyond the bathroom, presenting opportunities to address the activities of daily living more broadly. DESIGN AS ANTICIPATION To that end, the lesson extends beyond bathrooms. Design, at its best, is a form of anticipation, a way of seeing around corners and preparing for the moments when people need support most. Accessibility is about creating resilient environments that hold up under real-life pressures. For businesses, this shift has profound implications. The companies that anticipate and meet the needs of diverse users will build deeper loyalty, longer product life cycles, and more durable brands. Those who continue to design for a typical user will miss opportunities hiding in plain sight. 5 LESSONS FOR EVERY ENTREPRENEUR Not every business will design bathroom fixtures, but the principles that guide accessible luxury apply across industries. Here are five takeaways: Redefine luxury through accessibilityThe strongest brands of the future will be those that make people feel included and empowered. Design for lifespan, not a snapshotProducts and services that adapt and anticipate customers evolving needs earn lasting loyalty. Use constraints as creativity catalystsAccessibility challenges often spark breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Blend purpose with personalityPeople may buy for function, but they become brand loyalists when design delivers dignity, joy, and peace of mind. Expand your perspective beyond the average userThere is no average customer; designing for edge cases often reveals universal value. TOWARD A NEW STANDARD We stand at a crossroads. Demographic shifts, cultural expectations, and personal experiences are reshaping how we define the modern home. For some, accessibility is already a necessity. For others, it is an inevitability. For all of us, it should be an expectation. The bathroom may be one of the smallest rooms in the house, but it carries outsized importance in our health, independence, and dignity. By reimagining it through the lens of accessible luxury and lifespan design, we can transform not just a room, but the very idea of what it means to live well. Luxury is no longer about gold-plated fixtures or marble countertops. Luxury is being able to live comfortably, safely, and beautifully, at every age, in every circumstance, for every body. That is the standard we should all be designing toward. Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
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E-Commerce
Tesla rolled out “affordable” versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and its Model 3 sedan, but the starting prices of $39,990 and $36,990 struck some as too high to attract a new class of buyers to the electric vehicle brand. Tesla’s stock fell 4% and Tesla bull Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said he was disappointed that the cars were only about $5,000 cheaper than the next trims of the models. The new versions, called Standard, cost more than what the previous models started at, including a $7,500 tax credit that expired at the end of September. The much-awaited unveiling is crucial for Tesla as it pushes to reverse falling sales and waning market share amid rising competition in Europe and China, and the loss of the U.S. tax credit. Model Y Standard [Image: Tesla] CEO Elon Musk has for years promised mass-market vehicles, though last year he canceled plans for an all-new $25,000 EV, Reuters first reported. Instead, he chose to build lower-priced versions based on Tesla’s current models, sparking concerns among investors and analysts that the cheaper cars would cannibalize sales of existing vehicles and limit growth. “It’s basically a pricing lever and not much of a product catalyst,” said Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at research firm Futurum Equities. “I don’t see it as unlocking new demand at scale.” Both Standard versions offer 321 miles (516 km) of range and less powerful acceleration than the current higher trims called Premium. They can be ordered immediately, with deliveries set to start between December 2025 and January 2026 for many locations, Tesla’s website showed. Model 3 Standard [Image: Tesla] The Standard versions do not come with Autosteer, Tesla’s driver assistance system, or touchscreens for rear passengers. Tesla has also removed the LED lightbar in the cheaper Model Y. Both come with textile seats, with vegan leather available for the Model 3, and manually adjusted side-view mirrors. Late last year, Musk said the vehicle would be priced below the “key threshold” of $30,000 including U.S. EV tax credits. In the United States, prices effectively rose by $7,500 at the end of last month, when the credit ended. Quarterly sales rose to a record as consumers rushed to take advantage of the credit while they could, but expectations are that they will slow down for the rest of the year, unless the affordable car comes to the rescue. “The desire to buy the car is very high. (It’s) just (that) people don’t have enough money in the bank account to buy it,” Musk said in July during Tesla’s second-quarter earnings call. “So the more affordable we can make the car, the better.” Tesla had posted two clips on X over the weekend, igniting excitement among fans. One video shows headlights peering out of the dark and another shows what looks like a wheel spinning for a few seconds, followed by “10/7” the U.S. format for the date October 7. Crucial to $1 trillion pay plan Musk initially promised that production of the vehicle would start by the end of June. But Tesla only made what it called “first builds” of the car, it said in July, adding that it would be available for customers sometime in the last three months of the year. Tesla has already been grappling with slowing sales of its aging lineup as competition has grown rapidly, especially in China and Europe, where Musk’s far-right political views have also undermined brand loyalty. Earlier this year, Tesla launched a refreshed version of the Model Y with improvements including new light bars and a rear touchscreen. Musk has been pivoting the company toward artificial intelligence, focusing on robotaxis and humanoid robots. Tesla has said it will launch more affordable vehicles in its lineup but has not provided details. Affordable cars will also be key to Tesla delivering 20 million vehicles over the next decade – one of the several operational and valuation milestones set by the company’s board as part of its proposed $1 trillion pay package for Musk. (Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Akash Sriram and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson, Richard Chang, Sriraj Kalluvila and Alan Barona)
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E-Commerce
The U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a public health alert on Monday for FreshRealm’s ready-to-eat meals shipped directly to consumers by HelloFreshdue to possible contamination from listeria. HelloFresh is a German-based meal-kit company operating in the United States and globally in Europe, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. FreshRealm notified FSIS that the spinach used in the products tested positive for listeria bacteria. So far, no illnesses have been reported. However, FSIS said it expected additional products will be affected, and asked consumers to check this public health alert frequently as the agency will update it when more information becomes available. Last month, FreshRealm said tests confirmed that pasta used in linguine dishes sold at Walmart contained the same strain of listeria linked to a deadly outbreak in June, originally tied to chicken fettucine alfredo, that killed at least four people and sickened 20, the Associated Press noted. Here’s what to know about this week’s alert. What is listeria, and what are the symptoms of infection? According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Listeria monocytogenes is a type of disease-causing bacteria that is generally transmitted when food is harvested, processed, prepared, packed, transported, or stored in manufacturing or production environments contaminated with the bacteria. Infection can lead to severe symptoms, such as abdominal pain, fever, nausea, and diarrhea, and poses a particular risk to vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. What is the product information for the alert? Here are the details of the products mentioned in the alert: Product Name: HELLO FRESH READY MADE MEALS CHEESY PULLED PORK PEPPER PASTA Establishment number and lot codes: Est. 47718 and lot code 49107, or Est. 2937, and lot code 48840 Package size and type: 10.1-oz. containers Product Name: HELLO FRESH READY MADE MEALS UNSTUFFED PEPPERS WITH GROUND TURKEY Establishment number and lot codes: Establishment number P-47718 and lot codes 50069, 50073, or 50698 Package size and type: 10-oz. containers What if I have these products in my refrigerator or freezer? Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. Instead, these products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase. Consumers with questions may contact FreshRealms customer service hotline at 1-888-244-1562 or customerservice@freshrealm.com.
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E-Commerce
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