Words:??Georgina McWhirter

Venus Williams is well-known as a tennis champion. But she???s also acing it off the court. At this year???s NeoCon, her firm V Starr launches its first-ever product collaboration: Muse, an upholstery line with??Wolf-Gordon??that celebrates the power of women. Rounds of drawings went back and forth between Williams and V Starr principal Sonya Haffey and Wolf-Gordon CCO Marybeth Shaw and senior textile designer Kathrin Hagge, culminating in the three uplifting patterns, which come in a range of colorways that cleverly incorporate various pronouns (think Alabasther). There???s Elena, a matelass?? of dancing figures rendered in post-consumer polyester and nylon; Ora, a bleach-cleanable polyester-nylon on which twisting, gradated helices vibrate with energy; and Frida, a poly-acrylic blend where black and white twisted yarns resemble kinetic brushstrokes on a chromatic ground. ???I???m so proud of the patterns and colors,??? Williams says. ???Venus,??? Shaw adds, ???is the ultimate example of female strength.??? Game, set, match.