THE window display of Hermes’ flagship store has been temporarily taken over by mythical hybrid animals. A boar-headed creature with crab pincers and a fish tail. A buffalo with human legs on skis. A jug-headed bat with human hands. All rendered in leather and adorned with Hermes objects and accessories.

The unusual display is the brainchild of Hansol Kim, a 34-year-old creative working at the intersection of art, fashion and contextual design. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim studied craft at the University of Brighton and finished his master’s degree in contextual design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven – before embarking on a second master’s in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

Kim says: “I’ve always been fascinated by how objects develop through different social and political cultures. When I was growing up in South Korea, for a long time I believed dragons were mythological beasts endemic to my region. I later learnt that dragons exist in the Western imagination as well, although they have different symbolisms.