Louis Vuitton Is Hosting Cruise 2017 in Brazil's UFO-Like Niterói Museum

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If the location of Louis Vuitton's last cruise show — the modernist Bob Hope estate in Palm Springs — draws comparisons to a spaceship, the venue for this year's presentation is even more overtly reminiscent of a flying saucer. That would be Oscar Niemeyer's Niterói Contemporary Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which will play host to the fashion house's cruise 2017 show on May 28.

While luxury brands have come around to competing with one another on the digital front (Vuitton creative director Nicolas Ghesquière announced his choice of the Niterói via Instagram, after all), finding novel and visually spectacular locations for their off-season shows has become a small point of rivalry in the last year. (Though, obviously, the crazier the venue, the better the 'grams.) A few days after Louis Vuitton presented its resort collection in Palm Springs last year, Dior flew the fashion pack out to the Pierre Cardin-designed Palais Bulles ("Bubble Palace") just outside Cannes. Not to be outdone, Chanel held its cruise 2015 show at Seoul's Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a curving metallic structure created by the late Zaha Hadid.

Dior's cruise 2016 show at the "Bubble Palace." Image: Valerie Hache/Getty Images

Without doubt, there are plenty more sweeping, futurist spaces around the world for the luxury sector to make use of while this aesthetic suits designers' moods. The only question, really, is whether editors and buyers can keep up with the jet lag.