there's a little kinda trend that we've noticed that's awesome. take a traditional pattern, then add your urban twist. take for example, timorous beasties toile wallpaper - the london version with mugging, or the charming glasgow version complete with junkies, and a guy pissing on a wall (as of writing, removed from site).
parking meters and water hydrants mix in with flowers and birds for dan funderburgh.
how designers have successfully submitted for publication:
kat coyle, her folio of published patterns on flickr, her book boho baby knits.
not new, but worth a look if you haven't seen them before. Showstudio has free patterns from designers - the catch being that there isn't the handholding you might be used to with commercial patterns. Like Junya Watanabe dress, alexander mcqueen top or yoji yamamoto jacket or john galliano or martin margiela.
we've grabbed the yamamoto jacket with the idea of seeing how it might translate into a knit garment.