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A tinny Smurf lunch box doesn't quite cut it for some grade school children. Too wimpy. But that shouldn't come as a surprise. Today's kids are adamant about oversized T-shirts and overpriced sneakers and they were bound to reject flimsy lunch containers in favor of something more chic.

The new-wave pails they've embraced are made from plastic used on batters' helmets and thermal fabric developed for NASA. The modern lunch box can go to grammar school or Wall Street. It's good-looking, expensive and sturdy, designed to last years, and roomy enough for a soda or juice, a sandwich and some fruit or yogurt. The colors are chic: classic primary colors, hot neon tones, solid black and aluminum.

One of the best-selling lunch pails is Ice Man, by Metrokane, part of New York's Museum of Modern Art gift collection (available for $19.95 at KitchenArts in Boston). More than a quarter-million of these pails were bought last year. Ice Man looks like an old-fashioned construction worker's lunch pail with an adjustable shoulder strap. It's made with ABS plastic, which is durable enough to protect baseball players up at bat. Metrokane owner Riki Kane developed Ice Man when she was looking for something to carry her own lunch in. "I do a lot of trade shows at the Javits Center. I got really tired of standing on line and paying $11 for a tuna salad with exhausted tomatoes. I decided to bring my own."

Kane found only the childish lunch boxes decorated with Disney or cartoon characters. What she wanted was a classic pail sleek enough to sling on her shoulder.

Today, she packs tuna salad and diet soda in a high-tech pail that comes in tropical and primary colors. An entirely black model was designed specially for men. Inside the lid an ice pack can be snapped into place so food stays cold for several hours. Ice Man is too bulky and heavy for small children, says Kane. She sees lots of teen-agers around Manhattan carrying them.

Another knockoff of the classic worker's pail is the aluminum model by Hardwear, produced by William Karelitz of Karelitz International ($35 at Global Goods; $42 at Allston Beat, Boston, Cambridge and Allston). This a la mode pail comes in anodized aluminum (black) with aluminum rivets and in plain aluminum, both with matching black or silver shoulder straps. A spring clip in the lid holds a standard thermos. One of the New Kids wears a Hardwear hat, and many of the group's fans buy the lunch pail, says a clerk who sells them. The pail is one of 60 items that Karelitz developed as "a tribute to American workers." Like bluejeans and cowboy boots, the American lunch pail by Hardwear is now selling in Australia, Italy and Japan. "I can't take credit for a design that's been around for so many years," says Karelitz. The pail isn't insulated or leakproof, but it's unbreakable and the look is fabulous.

If insulation is important, the highest-tech fabric is a soft, tear- resistent material with thermal qualities. Used by the ballistics industry for years and on camera cases and belt bags more recently, it's now part of the lunch culture.

The Tyke Corp. makes a Munch Box in red fabric with yellow trim. Cold food will stay chilled, says Marion-Ruth owner Jerry Kalman, who carries Munch Box in his Copley Place and Brookline stores ($11.95). Kalman says the box suits children up to first grade. Another soft model, this one rectangular, is made by Sassafras Enterprises ($12.50), also in bright primary colors, and it's less childish-looking than the Munch Box. "They're made to retain the temperature of what was put into them," says Kalman. Neither one, he adds, works like a real Thermos-brand product.

One of the best insulated lunch boxes on the market isn't a lunch box at all. It's a stand-up plastic cylinder with a stainless lining and two removable containers. Made in Japan by Nissan, this lunch contraption is durable and practical but wildly expensive ($52.95 at KitchenArts). One container keeps food hot; the other holds salad. A stainless spoon in a red plastic case attaches to the side.

Will Mack, owner of KitchenArts, prefers an insulated bag and ice pack made by Alpine West ($12.95). The sack, in bright modern colors, most resembles a brown paper bag, except this model folds closed with a Velcro fastener, and it has the capacity to keep food cold for several hours. The material is space- age, used by NASA.

Mack maintains that the lunch bag that carries the most cachet for the money is the French string bag used for daily marketing abroad. Woven from undyed yarn, the string bag will hold lunch for a family of four if everything is secure in containers. Mack buys string bags from the French Canadians and sells them at cost ($3) and they make fine lunch carriers.

They won't suit a child who loves heavy metal, but they'll hold ballet slippers, workbooks, and an art project on the way home.

THINK ECOLOGY AS YOU WRAP

The extra money you spend on a chic lunch box this year can be part of an ecological rebate. If you change from plastic bags to plastic containers (for sandwiches, salads and chips), you'll save about 135 sandwich bags per child per school year. Yes, it's more work.

Use square plastic containers instead of plastic bags for sandwiches. Buy potato chips or popcorn in large bags and transfer single servings to plastic containers. Rinse and reuse plastic bags that contained vegetables; do the same with bread bags. Wash the Styrofoam trays that meats come on and reuse them for carrying pieces of chicken or pizza (overwrap with a plastic bag). Rinse pint-size ice cream containers and half-pint yogurt containers to put salads and fruit in.

Pour juice into thermoses (buying juice in large jars is much cheaper than juice packs anyway), and wrap the day's cookie in a napkin.

Enlist your children's help: Encourage them to bring home plastic utensils, bags and yogurt containers to be rinsed and reused.

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