The Glitz Is Gone : The outrageousness of individual style is missing everywhere. St. Tropez, usually a harbinger of fashion trends, has gone beige. Even Jean Kasem--<i> Jean Kasem!</i> --is toning it down. Heavens! Have we got the blahs?

Add another creature to the endangered-species list. Pencil in people with garish personal style right next to spotted owls and snail darters.

There are as many explanations for their demise as for the passing of the dinosaurs. Assimilation, the winds of change, a sequin backlash, age, economics and our rising shock threshold did them in.

As recently as a year ago, sightings of someone wearing something outrageous came at every turn. We saw elderly ladies in leopard-print, spandex toreador pants and seashell-encrusted mules at Ralphs. Their male counterparts lounged in car-wash waiting rooms in brightly colored but mismatched madras golf clothes.

They maintained their fashion vision no matter what, dressing with a complete lack of regard for convention. Some did it for effect; others were caught in a time warp. But as fashions changed, as punk, grunge, Chanel and deconstructivist fads began to overlap, many of the folks who used to stand out began to blend in.

Even Tinseltown has turned taupe.

Daryl Hannah, who posed in a mermaid dress with marabou wrap and rhinestone-studded sunglasses for cameras at the Academy Awards, is now running with the East Coast preppy king John F. Kennedy Jr. in nondescript athletic shorts and T-shirts, and ducking lensmen.

At last month’s Emmy Awards, there wasn’t a single sartorial gaffe--and Jean Kasem was there. The actress used to arrive at the glittery Hollywood gatherings in outrageous ensembles guaranteed to land her on the worst-dressed lists. This year, even Kasem dressed down. When fashion faux pas are missing from an awards ceremony, you know something is afoot.

“Maybe it’s a return of good taste,” suggests David Wolfe, who noticed the change in St. Tropez last spring. Wolfe, a fashion forecaster for the New York-based Doneger Group, looks to the French Riviera for summer fashion trends. This year, something was missing. “All the tired old Lolitas were gone,” he says.

“The most interesting thing about St. Tropez is the glitz, glitter and vulgarity,” Wolfe adds. “But there has been a total turnaround. No one looked like a hooker on holiday. People were wearing simple clothes with nothing flashy, sparkling or in leather.”

“It really is a sign of the times when you don’t see those women who wear leggings with cowboy boots and glitter glasses,” says Tom Julian of the New York-based Fashion Assn., a trade organization.

“I was in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, having dinner at Drai’s,” he says, “and the only table that was old Hollywood style was Marvin and Barbara Davis’. She had some celery-colored Japanese-inspired thing on, with big earrings and big hair. She was the only one in the room with that ‘Ivana Trump of the ‘80s’ look.”

Most people have turned to simple separates, says Julian, such as “denim, banded-collar shirts, chinos. The world has been Gapped.”

“It’s not just the Gap,” says Sandy Richman, owner of Los Angeles-based Directives West, a fashion forecasting firm. “The Gap tends to be a casual dressing style and it’s more broad-based. The whole cleaner way of dressing that came from Europe is responsible.”

Most stores are carrying simple, streamlined, unembellished clothing. Which makes it tough on those committed to glitz and high glam, Richman says.

Or “maybe they’re dead,” ventures Mr. Blackwell. He, of the best- and worst-dressed lists, says the women in seashell-encrusted mules and multiple charm bracelets were ‘40s holdovers who never changed their style. And now they are fading into the sunset.

Some who worked very hard at a flagrant personal style have consciously changed their ways--even Kasem, once the paparazzi’s darling.

“It was a phase. It was all part of the ‘80s atmosphere of too much is never too much,” Kasem says. She went from eeeeek to elegant by replacing towering hairstyles and plunging necklines with simple hairdos and decorous evening gowns.

“Things are different now--it’s about not flaunting what you’ve got. People are dressing down for safety, for humility, and because they have an embarrassment of riches,” Kasem says.

She got out of the fashion statement frenzy just in time. It takes a look as strong as bear’s breath to raise eyebrows today.

Consider whom the TV talk shows look to for input on style’s cutting edge--RuPaul, the plastically perfect 6-foot-7-inch transvestite model. She appeared on the Joan Rivers show last summer to trade makeup tips and “girl talk” with Rivers. RuPaul made two costume changes during the one-hour show; not wishing to be out-frocked, so did Rivers.

It seems the threshold for what we consider creative, garish or shocking is almost bullet-proof. Bette Midler’s stage act and costumes were once all three. “I saw her show years ago and she was outrageous,” says Bari Lipp, senior editor of Tobe Report, a New York City-based fashion forecasting publication, who saw the singer’s recent show at Radio City Music Hall. But Midler isn’t outrageous by today’s standards, Lipp laments: “We’ve seen too much.”

Even Madonna is having a hard time hustling headlines. When her “Girlie Show” tour recently opened in London, the costumes hardly raised eyebrows, much less a ruckus. If she can’t get a fashion rise, how can an amateur hope to dress to distraction?