No Sign of Fatigue in Fashion Flare-Up : Fads: As the Mideast crisis wears on, many Southlanders are doing what the troops are doing--donning desert combat gear.

Attention , fashion slaves. Our military men in Saudi Arabia have inspired a hot new trend on the home front: desert combat fatigues for civilians.

But don’t rush off to Nordstrom or Rodeo Drive. About the only places you can buy desert-patterned battle uniforms (if you’re not in the armed forces, of course) are in the distinctly sub- haute showrooms of Army-Navy surplus stores.

A check this week of surplus dealers in Southern California revealed that sellers have had a hard time keeping desert camouflage togs in stock since the U.S. troop buildup began in the Persian Gulf.

“It has become a fad. . . . People sort of feel pride in what’s happening, and they want to identify with it. It’s like raising a flag, almost,” said Bernie Graf, owner of Surplus Headquarters in Reseda.

Graf said that in the past several days, he has sold dozens of desert uniforms at $55 each. Although he also carries the jacket and pants ensembles in green camouflage, his customers have eyes only for the tan-and-chocolate models.

The notion that they are fashion plates probably would elicit more than a few guffaws from American soldiers slogging through the superheated silica of the Saudi desert. But their jaunty images flickering across millions of TV sets in the United States have led many civilian males to conclude that the troopers’ rumpled, dusty outfits look, well, pretty cool.

“It’s the in thing right now,” said Peter Kalaydjian, an owner of RECON-1 in Tarzana. “It’s what’s seen on TV, and that’s when the wanna-bes come out. We have a lot of people who like to dress up as police and security guards, too.”

Although some buyers are servicemen who want extra uniforms in case they are sent overseas, many are civilians. But the home-front buyers don’t think of themselves as armchair Beau Gestes. They say they’re snapping up the outfits out of patriotism.

“If more people would wear something like this, they’d show they’re for the guys that are over there,” said Edward Givant, a Woodland Hills electronics technician who shelled out $63 for a desert uniform this week, despite having been laid off his job recently.

But Givant also admits his new togs will make him one spiffy-looking patriot.

“I just like the style. It’s the real thing,” he said.

Fashion flare-ups, like other offshoots of America’s mercurial pop culture, often reflect political attitudes.

Twenty years ago, many young people filled out their wardrobes at Army-Navy stores. But then, wearing tattered Army jackets and jungle hats was a way to protest an American military engagement--specifically, the Vietnam War--not to support one.

Alan Millstein, a New York-based fashion analyst, said that if the Persian Gulf buildup continues, major clothing retailers may pick up on the trend and offer stylized military garb along with other new fashions next spring.

The popularity of surplus uniforms, Millstein said, “could have a significant impact on the youth market in spring, 1991. . . . The youth market is strongly influenced by TV. The current generation, people between 12 and 20, have never experienced a war. So to them, this is better than going to the movies.”

But a retail-industry observer suggested that wearing desert uniforms may suddenly seem very unfashionable if war actually breaks out in the Gulf.

“A lot of kids have Rambo fantasies. But if and when fighting starts, they’re likely to sober up real quick,” said Kurt Barnard, who publishes a newsletter from New York that predicts trends in retail sales.

Persian Gulf tensions also have helped Army-Navy dealers by driving up sales of military-style arm patches, pins, combat knives, T-shirts and even gas masks.

Kalaydjian, of RECON-1, said he recently sold six high-grade, carbon-steel combat knives to parents of military personnel who may soon be ordered abroad. The knives sell for $220 each.

“Fathers, mothers--they want the best for whoever’s going,” he said. “They’re buying them as going-away gifts, believe it or not.”

Surplus sellers said many of those buying gas are worried Iraq may launch a chemical attack against the United States.

“It’s a little far-fetched, but you find these kind of people always overreact when there’s a threat to America,” said Randi Shapiro, manager of Santa Ana Army and Navy.

Dave Tipple, a manager at the Army-Navy Store in Orange, said most of the gas masks his store is selling cost just $9 and are designed to withstand only tear gas, not lethal nerve gas or other military weapons.

Moreover, instructions for the masks, which are made in Israel, are printed in Hebrew, making them unreadable to most buyers, he said.

But Werner Dreifuss, owner of the Bargain Center in San Diego, said rising tensions in the Mideast could eventually hurt him and other surplus dealers. As more U.S. soldiers are shipped overseas, he said, his customer base will shrink.

For now, though, many surplus sellers are enjoying the onrush of buyers.

“When baseball season comes, everybody buys baseball items,” said Jack Jehdian, a salesman at AGOP Discount in Reseda.

“Now it’s military season.”