For an Adorning Public

Ten days of fashion at Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana--a festival called the Art of Adorning, running today through April 28--will feature ethnic jewelry and clothing. A major sponsor of the event, surprisingly, is the ultra-sophisticated, oh-so-continental jewelry designer Cartier.

“I thought it was highly unusual; it did strike me as a paradox,” allowed Naomi Lindstrom, whose collection of “Beads--Ancient, Traditional, Tribal and Trade,” will be on display throughout the festival. “I would think the last thing they would want is for people to be interested in bead jewelry.”

Lindstrom’s collection was previously shown at the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum and moves on from Bowers to the University of Kentucky Art Museum. She’ll talk about her jewelry on Friday. The lecture, presented by the Bead Society of Orange County, will focus on ancient jewelry from the Middle East, China and the Americas and tribal jewelry from North Africa, Afghanistan and New Guinea.

“Using gems for decorative purposes is something that’s happened since the Industrial Revolution,” Lindstrom said. “Before that, adornment had more social significance. It told your lineage, your gender, your marital status, your tribal allegiance. It was your personal I.D.

“Gems and jewelry still can tell you a lot about a person, but it’s not as readable as it used to be. Mostly now it tells your financial status.”

The Gallery Store will be transformed for the fortnight into a Boutique of the World, featuring ethnic garb and jewelry. Capping the festival over the final weekend will be a design seminar, ethnic entertainment and a free show and sale of contemporary adornments from 25 artists, designers and shops including Mummy’s Bundle and Saints of Salvage.

Among other festival highlights, Topaz Cafe will serve up conch and other Caribbean foods with a voodoo art and culture lecture on Sunday. Donald Cosentino, co-curator of the “Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou” exhibition at UCLA’s Fowler Museum of Cultural History through June 16, will talk about “A World Made by Magic, the Arts of Haitian Vodou.”

Cosentino noted that Cartier is not the only mainstream designer embracing folk art these days.

“On the one hand, voodoo art is picking up Western materials like sequins,” Cosentino said. “Popular fashion designers like [Gianni] Versace are picking up on voodoo flags and making high fashion out of them, literally using the flags for the tops of dresses and for men’s shirts.”

Voodoo is the Haitian religion based on a belief in sorcery and the power of charms and fetishes; ritual voodoo flags made of satin, velvet or rayon and often adorned with sequins, beads and appliques are the most celebrated genre of voodoo sacred art.

Perhaps Cartier and others are realizing that all that glitters is not gold, or even gold and diamonds.

“Sequins, beads, everything that glitters is attractive to voodoo artists,” Cosentino said. “The mirror is a prime symbol. The flash of the mirror and mirror-like substances reminds voodoo practitioners and artists of the relationship between visible and invisible worlds. The Haitian . . . sees not just a reflecting substance, but a symbol that what’s visible also contains what’s invisible.”

* ART LISTINGS, FXX

* What: Art of Adorning festival.

* When: Through April 28. Museum open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

* Where: Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana.

* Whereabouts: Exit the Santa Ana (5) Freeway at 17th Street; go west. Turn right onto Main Street.

* Wherewithal: Museum admission, $4.50. Seniors/students, $3; children 5 to 12, $1.50; under 5, free.

* Where to call: (714) 567-3600. Topaz Cafe, (714) 835-2002.

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The Art of Adorning Festival

* Today through April 28: “Beads--Ancient, Traditional, Tribal and Trade,” Naomi Lindstrom’s collection of jewelry from many cultures, in Leo Freedman Foundation Galleria. Included with Bowers Museum admission. Also, Boutique of the World, global marketplace of fashion and adornments in the Gallery Store. Free.

* Friday at 7 p.m.: Lecture by Naomi Lindstrom in the Robert Gumbiner Conference Center, presented by Bead Society of Orange County. $10. Museum members are free.

* Sunday at 6 p.m.: Voodoo art and Caribbean food. Topaz chef John Sharpe serves conch and other Haitian dishes; Donald Cosentino, co-curator of the “Vodou” exhibition at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, lectures in the conference center. $75 all-inclusive. Reservations required. (714) 567-3638.

* Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.: Calvin Klein informal modeling and luncheon in Topaz Cafe and tour of “Beads--Ancient, Traditional, Tribal and Trade.” $50. Bowers Fellows, $25.

* April 26-28: Artists and designers show and sale in the conference center (all day during museum hours). Free.

* April 27, 1-3 p.m.: Art of Adorning design seminar with designers and collectors in the Gloria and Si Fluor Family Gallery. Free.

* April 27 and 28, 1-2 p.m.: Ethnic music and dance in the Nobles Courtyard. Free.

* April 28, 1-3 p.m.: Ethnic style show. Historic and contemporary ethnic fashion and jewelry. Free. (Museum admission is free all day this day only.)