Those hunting for hot new fashion talent could do worse than prowl the stalls at the 26th Street Flea Market.

Tucked into corners of the enormous flea’s six bustling weekend lots are designers who have taken the do-it-yourself work ethic to heart: Not only do they design the clothes in their booths, but they’re on hand each Saturday and Sunday to sell them as well.

And why wouldn’t they want to be a part of the market? It’s a well-known stomping ground for fashion stylists, journalists and department store and boutique buyers — all of whom have the power to make an international success story out of a humble market vendor.

And they have: Witness the ascending stars of these three flea-based design firms, all of which have taken their fashions beyond the market’s confines.

They’re chasing her skirts

Silk brocades, chenille bedspreads, heavy curtains and duvet covers – any old “old” fabric is fair game for Louise Hedley, a designer who sews bias-cut skirts from a stash of vintage fabrics.

Hedley, a 28-year-old former dancer from England, began selling her skirts at the 26th Street Flea Market two years ago.

“It started out slow. I’d sell only a few a week,” she says. “But now, it’s kind of kicking.”

So kicking that Hedley has turned skirt making into her full-time job.

Her customers – including “everyone from tourists to uptown girls to girls who live around the corner” – have started to collect the skirts, which range from $65 to $125 for finer antique fabrics; her new line of dresses are also $125.

Though actress Lili Taylor and several popular models are fans, they don’t get special treatment from Hedley, who sells in the lot on the southwest corner at 24th Street and Sixth Avenue.

“The regulars are my celebs,” she says.

Hedley will begin selling her skirts over the Web (www.louisehedley.com) in about two weeks.

Until then, you know where to find her.

MoMo works their mojo

Anyone who still associates tie-dye with Woodstock and peace signs hasn’t seen a slip dress by MoMo Falana, the name of the fashion collection by the design team couple Maureen Roberts and Michael Lublin.

The two – who are engaged to be married in June – started their clothing company about five years ago, when Lublin suggested they tie-dye some slips they had picked up on a thrift-store trip.

“I thought, ‘Oh, no: Not the Grateful Dead,'” Roberts remembers.

Far from it. The finished slip dresses – which are MoMo’s mainstay, though they also sell beaded cardigans, tops, silk pants, evening gowns and even some men’s stuff – are colorful pieces of wearable art.

Not long after their first dying experience, they loaded up their car and headed to 26th Street to try their luck. After one hot summer and a frigid winter, the MoMo buzz caught on.

Donna Karan started stopping by (MoMo slips are now sold at Karan’s Manhattan DKNY store, as well as Bendels, Barneys and Searle). Supermodels made the slips their official off-duty uniform.

Leonardo DiCaprio bought a sexy slip from the duo – “but he wouldn’t tell us who it was for,” Roberts says.

Fashion magazines borrowed dresses for shoots and interviewed them for stories. But the MoMo team really knew their time had come when they were approached to sell in the very chic designer boutique Linda Dresner.

“Then we thought we really might be onto something,” says Roberts, who is in a blues/rock outfit with Lublin called the Bowery Angels. “For a musician, that’s like playing Carnegie Hall!”

They opened their first store at Avenue A and Third Street late last year. There, MoMo fans such as Uma Thurman buy slip dresses priced $250 to $850 (evening gowns go up to $2,500).

Even though their star is on the rise, Roberts and Lublin have no plans to abandon their spot in the middle of the flea’s Dollar Lot (on Sixth Avenue between 25th and 26th streets).

In fact, today is their first day back after a self-imposed winter recess.

“We don’t want to leave the market,” says Roberts. “It’s been so important to us and our business. We really believe that it’s the crossroads of the fashion industry.”

H&M a discount dream

H&M — the fabulous new discount store that opened Friday on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 51st Street — is giving Abba a run for the title of Best Scandinavian Export.

At the opening bash on Thursday night, fashion-world hipsters snapped up $80 leather clam diggers and $109 motorcycle jackets, $19 linen dresses, $13 T-shirts (which ranged from punky to boatneck versions with multi-colored stripes) and $30 scarf-print skirt.

And that was just the first floor!

Upstairs, there are two more floors of on-the-cheap designer knockoffs, stuff for men, a cosmetics counter, and many more racks of clothes and accessories.

When the doors opened the next morning, 700 fashion-forward folks waited to get their H&M fix.

And who could blame them? Rarely do you find a discount store that combines cheap-and-chic so very well.

Peaking with antiques

Like a lot of vendors at the 26th Street Flea Market, Anna Corinna started selling vintage clothes for extra money.

“I made as much money there in one day as I made at my horrible, crappy day job that made me cry at my desk every day,” Corinna remembers.

That was four years ago.

These days Corinna and fellow market vendor Dana Foley sell their wares in a storefront on Stanton Street under the name Foley & Corinna.

Though vintage clothes are really her bag, Corinna began making purses from antique fabric a few years ago. The colorful, handmade bags ($35 to $150) sell at DKNY and — of course — at their Stanton Street store, alongside retro Gucci and Fendi bags that Corinna has located for sale.

Foley, a playwright, started selling her designs about a year ago, though she had sold vintage clothes there several years before.

Celebs like Daryl Hannah and Frances McDormand have stopped by Foley’s booth to pick up bustled skirts ($85 to $220) and long dresses, which come in delicate looking but sturdy fabrics like stretch silk shantung.

Since its November opening, Foley & Corrina has attracted vintage fashion lovers, including designers like Katayone Adeli and Anna Sui, as well as stylists from the HBO show “Sex and the City.”

Despite their success, neither woman has given up her weekend job: Both still set up shop in the Dollar Lot (on Sixth Avenue between 25th and 26th streets).

“People who wouldn’t go down to Stanton Street to shop will go to the flea market,” Foley says. “And there are people there from all over the world, which makes it a good testing ground for new designs.”