The Mad Hatters : Their music is techno, their clothing wacky. Ravers look to the ‘60s, Dr. Seuss, product logos for inspiration.

They’re not clowns. Nor year-round trick-or-treaters.

The participants in a new fashion phenomenon sweeping the Southland’s fringe are certified ravers . Their uniforms consist of clownlike baggy pants, cartoon-color T-shirts and, to top them off, “Alice in Wonderland”-inspired top hats.

Ravers, mainly teen-agers and twentysomethings, attend the dance-’til-dawn underground parties, known as raves, that are also boffo in Southern California. Although rave music--a fast-beat danceable hybrid called “techno”--is the most celebrated side-effect of this European culture invasion, wacky rave fashion is also seeping into the mainstream in the form of more subdued velvet top hats and not-as-baggy trousers and jeans.

Stores such as Retail Slut on Melrose Avenue and Funkeesentials on 3rd Street feature genuine 1960s-inspired rave requisites including nearly yard-high top hats and psychedelic, graphic T-shirts. Variations of the look, from fake-fur shirts and wide-stripe tights to rubber pin-on flowers, can be seen in clubs from San Diego to San Francisco.

This Mad Hatter fashion, ravers say, was inspired by the first illegal underground parties held about two years ago in local warehouses--parties that looked to the stories of childhood for themes such as “Alice in Wonderland” and “Cat in the Hat.”

Pop culture products also influence rave fashion, said Helen Bed, a buyer for Retail Slut. Ravers seem to both embrace and mock commercial themes, as seen in T-shirts with bold graphics that resemble a box of Tide, for example. Another T parodies the Coca-Cola logo with a red-and-white graphic that reads “Ecstasy,” the street name of an illegal hallucinogen that permeates the underground. Many ravers, however, separate the clothes and the lifestyle.

Some rave wear reflects the oddball styles of the late Rudi Gernreich, a prominent designer of the 1960s who espoused the fur-laden hats and graphic prints that contributed to the whimsical, futuristic look. His progeny appear in such local clothing lines as Gypsys and Thieves, which features pants, overalls, shorts and top hats, and Fresh Jive, which puts out T-shirts that recall the bright graphics of supermarket products. Retail Slut offers a full selection of Gypsys and Thieves clothing, while Funkeesentials carries a smaller selection of that line plus a generous portion of Fresh Jive.

“I just want to wear the weirdest thing I can when I come to dance,” says local club-goer Alexis Garnica, who donned a red crepe jacket and fur top hat on a recent night. “My friends and I like to be the center of attention.”