BY DESIGN : The Word on the Streetwear : Super-big clothes are ‘out.’ Thrift styles and Kramer-inspired novelty shirts are ‘in.’

Give a final heave-ho to oversized, boxy, disheveled and funky.

Those too phat, hip-hop clothes that young men and their little brothers drowned in for a good part of this decade in the name of gangsta or skater style can finally be set curbside.

Judging from the clothes shown at last week’s Action Sports Retailer Show in San Diego, streetwear 1995-style is more sophisticated--in its fabrications, design and attitude.

The West Coast’s alternative- and active-wear trade convention is where trend-watchers go to find the next big thing. Rapper Ice-T cruised the aisles, doing research for his new snowboard-apparel venture, Syndicate Snowboards.

“It’s about the underground,” he said. “I remember I’m an underground artist, so I have to get down with the underground clothes.”

What’s underground? The concept of “leisure wear,” togs that once clothed an era that dared to swank. Picture gas-guzzling convertibles, weekends in Vegas before the kiddies were welcome and Scotch on the rocks at the club. A wardrobe by any other name would be “weekend wear,” “lounge wear” and “picnic wear.” Buzz, buzz.

So polish up that martini shaker and dust off your dad’s golf clubs.

Start by tossing out T-shirts that could serve as dresses and make way for V-neck tennis sweaters, Mexican wedding shirts and Kramer-inspired novelty print shirts. Giant, boxer-revealing jeans have been replaced by brushed or polished twill chinos that still fit loosely, but closer to actual body size. And those bulky quilted and wool-felt outer-wear coats look dated against cotton or terry golf zipper jackets.

“Super-big stuff is out,” assures Scott Bailey, co-owner of Split in Huntington Beach. “Everything is still relaxed, not tight. But the new focus is wearing a size closer to your own, which gives you a more tailored effect.”

Fashion sensibilities have been slimming down and dressing up for a year now as designers and their scenester pals have raided thrift stores and their weird uncle’s closets for pieces that “Seinfeld’s” Kramer, Hugh Hefner and Dean Martin would cherish.

“People are into thrift style, old men’s fashions,” says John Chase of the store Pleasure Swell in Los Angeles. For spring, the well-dressed teen and twentysomething will don a shirt and chinos by day and satin trousers and matching Windbreakers by night. Don’t forget the loafers. “It’s the stuff we envision a young Keith Moon would have worn,” he says, referring to the original drummer of the Who.

Natalie Rigolet of Twenty-Four Seven Inc. calls the new direction reactionary. “Every kid in America is wearing the oversized look. It’s in every mall.”

The Costa Mesa company leads the recent trend with its woven fine-gauge sweaters, an earmark for Twenty-Four Seven since entering the industry three years ago. This season, it’s added plush velour polos, poplin shirts with tab accents and a young women’s line that includes side-zipper capris and librarian-length shifts. “Very Kennedy in the White House,” Rigolet says.

The continuing retro influence of the kinder, gentler ‘50s and early ‘60s, Rigolet adds, has to do with the new emphasis on details, from embroidered crests to adjustable side buttons at the waist. “The bigger stuff didn’t have any designing involved. The ‘50s happened to be very detail-oriented, so it’s normal to look toward that period.”

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Even Kennington Ltd.--an original manufacturer of woven knits, dress shirts and V-neck sweaters favored by hep cats decades ago--found a spot in between younger, street-level companies hawking their interpretations.

And snowboard-apparel companies have followed suit, with constructed jackets, faux fur trims and retro patterns. Wave Rave of Boulder, Colo., features a fully lined and waterproof jacket that looks better tuned for playing 18 holes than for hiking on snow-covered terrain.

It’s preppy all right, but tweaked just enough to still conjure up cool.

“The vibe is still the same: urban contemporary streetwear,” says designer Rick Klotz, whose Los Angeles label Fresh Jive has remained fresh by piloting every twist in modern streetwear. “Where at one time that urban vibe represented hip-hop culture, for the last season and going forward it’s a retro-influenced, cleaner, jazzier look. It’s a reaction to all the kitschy, in-your-face, sarcastic clothing.”

But, Klotz cautions, it can never look too designed, too sophisticated. “It can’t look like it would hang in Barneys. Kids won’t buy it.”