These paper headdresses have been folded into the shapes of creatures from Chinese mythology by Paris accessories designer Qi Hu for the city's Printemps department store.

Qi Hu created the spiky pieces for a display in Printemps using origami, a technique she developed growing up in China.

"Origami is our childhood game, it has affected me since I was little," Hu told Dezeen. "I always use it as one of my main methods for my works, trying to tell Occident stories in an Oriental way."

The designer explained that she was approached by the store's visual merchandising department to create origami decorations for a display.

"I came up with the mask idea because it does not influence the clothing," Hu explained.

"While they told me that they would put the decoration at the entry of the men's section, I thought about guardians and some ancient creatures' figures in front of Chinese traditional gates."

Hu took the forms of revered Chinese creatures such as lions, dragons and kylins - a mix of a dragon, horse, ox and wolf - as the base shapes for the headgear.

The paper is folded into pointy shapes that resemble horns, tusks, teeth and ears.

The pieces are displayed on mannequins in the menswear department of Printemps and the designer describes them as being "full of masculine power".

Although each piece in the collection is different, Hu reused some of the same techniques across all of the designs to speed up the folding process.

"I decided to modularise my design and I reuse and combine different elements," said Hu. "Every mask has something in common but is truly unique."

The headdresses are on show in the store until 18 March.