In 2003, Massimo Calestrini, a designer with a family background in working with precious skins, launched the luxury fashion brand Shirò, which specializes in men's and women's clothing and accessories. The brand's focus is on creating the most incredible and exclusive exhibition of luxury bags, accessories, and garments in the world. Massimo's vision was to reach the wealthiest people in the world through the globalized market and offer them unique Italian hand-crafted bags, accessories, and clothing.

Shirò's philosophy is rooted in the belief that crocodile bags, wallets, and luggage are the best way to preserve one's most valuable belongings. The brand's name and logo are closely linked to Africa, where Massimo's family owned a crocodile breeding ground and various tanning facilities from 1852 to the beginning of the 1970s. The Shirò logo symbolizes a rare lizard with two tails, which represents a precious good luck talisman in the tradition of the ancient Mediterranean and African cultures. The brand's success in creating unique luxury leather goods has led to several flagship stores worldwide.

Shirò's manufacturing process is entirely managed in-house, with production taking place in Italy's owned premises in Modena, Florence, and Bologna. Each garment, accessory, and handbag is handcrafted in a limited edition and features an individual serial number. Shirò is recognized as the ultimate expression of unique luxury and timeless fashion.

The brand has been recognized nationally and internationally since its debut in the Milano Moda Donna calendar with the S/S 2004 collection. Shirò has been featured in Alta Roma shows in January 2004, where it established itself at a national and international level. Some of the significant milestones for the brand include the opening of flagship stores in Milan in 2006, Tokyo in 2008, Moscow in 2010, Geneva in 2014, and Monte-Carlo in 2021.

Shirò's products are commercialized exclusively through Shirò's wholly-owned stores. The brand is recognized for its luxury leather craftsmanship and use of superior materials, with a focus on exotic and precious leathers for women's and men's leather accessories collections, particularly handbags. The leathers used include crocodile, ostrich, python, lizard, mink, and sable. 

Shirò's products are distributed through retail channels, with some top retail customers requiring a unique product outside the usual collections. For these customers, Massimo designs and produces customized leather accessories. Shirò's creations have been worn by many celebrities, including Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, Lenny Kravitz, Nicole Kidman, and many members of Royals families.

“It is necessary to be alive and receptive, only in this way will things speak to you, revealing their secrets”

With this philosophy the Italian Designer Massimo Calestrini launched the Shirò brand in 2003.

Calestrini unites an inborn taste for beauty and for everything that is exclusive and precious with creativity and curiosity, a profound knowledge of exotic skins and unique materials, through which he has given life to an innovative and genuinely luxurious project.

Africa has always been an integral part of Massimo’s life who, after various consultancy experiences with important names in the world of fashion, decided to return to Ethiopia and to revive part of the company that his family, coming from Piedmont, had owned from the middle of the nineteenth century to the ‘70s, when they were forced to leave the African continent due to the civil war.

From 2003 to today, the fame of the label and of Massimo himself as a designer and entrepreneur has been a crescendo, both at a national and international level.

Important appointments like Alta Moda in Rome and Milano Moda Collezioni have been flanked by the opening of mono label boutiques in Italy and abroad. For the future the project is to increasingly expand and to take his own exclusive concept of luxury to a global level.