Tampabay.com - St. Petersburg, FL, USA - Gregory Parkinson dresses fashion plates such as Brooke Shields and Shiva Rose. He's shown his collection on the runway in Los Angeles and New York. And he sells his color-drenched, vibrantly patterned clothes at some of the world's most exclusive stores.

But this day, he's elbow deep in a potful of purple dye, teaching us how to cook up spring's coolest ombre pieces at home.

"This isn't the tie-dye your parents wore," Parkinson says in his British accent.

No, it's not. The spring runways proved that tie-dye today is as artful a form of decoration as hand-beading or embroidery. The old starburst patterns