New book offers glimpse of history behind Cambridge’s Andover Shop
A tiny shop with an unassuming storefront on a side street in Harvard Square altered the history of men’s fashion in the 20th century, and Charlie Davidson was the man behind it. Davidson founded the Andover Shop in 1948 and dressed not just Supreme Court justices and Harvard bigwigs, but Miles Davis, Chet Baker, and Ralph Ellison, among others. The shop became a cultural hub as well as a clothing store, a jewel box of tweed, jazz, and literature. A new book, “Miles, Chet, Ralph, & Charlie: An Oral History of The Andover Shop,” put together by Constantine A. Valhouli, gives a glimpse into this singular spot, and the inimitable man who ran it. The chorus of voices includes Roger Angell, Ellison, Nat Hentoff, Davis, Malcolm Gladwell, and Harvard Square legends like Mary-Catherine Deibel. The book includes firsthand interviews as well as archival materials — letters, newspapers, unpublished memoirs, and manuscripts — and the feel is of being at a gathering, people chatting away about Davidson, part gossip, part praise, sharing anecdotes, sharing stories, about his wisdom, his generosity (he was the “unofficial therapist for some of the leading figures in Boston,” says Mor Sène), his welcoming spirit, along with his unassailable taste. As B. Bruce Boyer says, the place marked the intersection of “the Establishment and the iconoclasts . . . many of the Shop’s most celebrated clients were consummate outsiders.” The book is a kaleidoscopic celebration of a man, an engaging look at fashion, jazz, and politics, and a lively history of Harvard Square, all sewn together by Valhouli in a well-tailored, timeless fit.