More Beasts Than Beauties at MTV Awards : Style: A few celebrities showed a touch of class amid the all-too-typical gathering of grunge.

It was a case of a handful of beauties and a lot of beasts.

The MTV Video Music Awards fashion scene Thursday night was an incongruous mix of haute couture and faux homeless. For every fashion hit, such as Sharon Stone’s coral Valentino gown with a beaded X-back, there were many misses: Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner in a Spaghetti-Os T-shirt and holey jeans; 4 Non Blondes, who looked as if they’d taken the 89-cents-a-pound deal at Goodwill; Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, who was having a bad hair, bad clothes and even a bad shoe day.

On the plus side, grunge is the perfect disguise to get past the paparazzi. While photographers were falling all over the interplanetary silver leather-clad Lenny Kravitz, two other headliners walked in unnoticed: Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, dressed like every high school guy circa 1972 in a khaki jacket and faded pajama print shirt, and Spin Doctors’ Chris Barron, in a Soul Asylum fan T-shirt (“ ‘cause I like them”) and scraggly hair.

Questionable fashion judgment was not confined to newcomers. Neil Young, grandfather of grunge, showed up with mutton-chop sideburns, scrappy hair and an odd choker. Sting has shown good taste in the past but took the sartorial low road this time. What looked like a skirt was the gold hemline of a baggy black sweater hanging below an unpressed black and gray jacket.

On the high end of the scale were the paramilitary clothes of U2’s the Edge, by designer Joe Casely Hayford; Madonna’s cross-dressing tails and top hat from her upcoming “The Girlie Show” tour; Christian Slater’s natty Giorgio Armani suit; Cindy Crawford’s black beaded Badgley Mischka dress; Natalie Merchant’s red and blue Christian Francis Roth gown; Khrystyne Haje’s Pre-Raphaelite hair, romantic dress and crown of flowers, and George Clinton’s quirky tangled hairdo and mixed, multicolored clothes (“Does it go?” he asked. “I’m colorblind.”).

One of the most beautiful gowns was on the 7-foot transvestite RuPaul. His long black rhinestone dress by Pamela Dennis was accessorized with a towering blond wig and long gloves.

Other than the sad-looking, out-of-town MTV contest winners, who came dressed like “Star Search” contestants, the audience, for the most part, out-dressed the celebrities. They came in ruffled blouses, sleek black dresses, shirts with fashionable knuckle-grazing sleeves, equestrian boots on men, and belts with buckles worn off-center. A contingent of 14-year-olds showed their fanaticism for Pearl Jam with homemade T-shirts. One of the best women’s hairdos was short and pasted-down with gel, Josephine Baker-style, so that the hair looked painted on.

If the annual MTV extravaganza were to honor costumes, as it should be, the first award would undoubtedly go to “Free Your Mind,” En Vogue’s futuristic, cleavage-filled Thierry Mugler fashion show styled by Kim Bowen.

A makeup award would certainly go to Joanne Gair, the genius behind Steven Tyler’s makeup in Aerosmith’s “Livin’ on the Edge.” Gair also deserved kudos for Madonna’s flattering makeup in “Rain.”

MTV might consider instituting these categories, if only to give rockers something to strive for beyond the looks they achieve just by rolling out of bed.