Brand Creates Stylish, Comfortable and Functional Scrubs for Medical Professionals
Beating cancer more than once is sure to change the way you prioritize life goals. For leukemia survivor and former fashion designer Jenny Beeghly, it turned out to be the perfect time to start a business. Together with her cousin, ER physician James Lim, the two founded Perilla and began redesigning uniforms worn by those in the medical professional industry. Together, they’re reimaging how scrubs should fit and feel when worn.
Jenny’s Story
Before her cancer diagnosis, the Korean American wife and mom of two based in Southern California considered herself health and fitness-motivated regularly exercising and eating nutritious meals. Back then her professional career focused on a different segment of the fashion industry as she spent over 20 years working for brands like BCBG Max Azria, Wet Seal and Quicksilver. On April 18, 2018 her life changed forever as she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia after an emergency room visit.
“The only time I have ever been in the hospital was for the birth of my kids and I was meal planning on Sundays working out and eating well, so yeah it was a surprise to me,” she said.
Beeghly learned that immediate chemotherapy treatments and a bone marrow transplant were needed in order to save her life. In addition to finding a match, she had an even tougher challenge to consider.
For patients in need of a bone marrow transplant, statistics show that the chances of finding a life-saving match decreases depending upon race and ethnicity. For Asians, the odds are 41 percent.
Becoming proactive and increasing her probability, Beeghly learned about a nonprofit affiliated with the national marrow donor program with the mission to spread awareness and recruit more donors, especially within the Asian American community. With the support of family and friends, she was able to get the word out through hosting donor drives at churches, festivals, colleges and sporting events.
As a Korean American, Beeghly considers herself extra lucky to find a bone marrow match not once, but twice. Eight months into recovery she relapsed needing another transplant, but beat the odds a second time.
Creating the “Lululemon” of Scrub Brands
Beeghly was inspired to do more and give back before she even left her hospital bed. It was a daily phone call with her cousin that sparked the idea for Perilla.
According to Beehly, Lim suggested a company that paid homage to hard-working medical professionals using her design talents.
“It was a way for me to combine passion and purpose,” she said.
While Lim admits that traditional scrubs aren’t meant to be designer, the idea behind Perilla is to create a high-end line of scrubs that makes people feel and look good, in lieu of these traditional uniforms that are typically boxy, unisex, unflattering and made out of the same material as cheap bedsheets.
Combining trendy athleisure style with the traditional scrub uniform, Perilla offers stretchy, antimicrobial, wrinkle-resistant and anti-fade fabrics. Breaking away from unisex styles, there’s a collection for both men and women so each can find their best fit.
Unlike other uniform-required fields, Lim explains that the majority of medical professionals purchase their own scrubs and there’s little regulation to them. Seeing the opportunity to connect with what consumers in this market were looking for, he reached out to colleagues for feedback about the features they felt were important and often lacking in other brands.
Having confidence and taking comfort in what you’re wearing can make all the difference as Lim portrays the realities of being a healthcare worker. He paints a picture opposite of a TV medical drama that often sugarcoats his job.
“It is brutally stressful at times,” he said. “It’s very long hours, so the small things like getting a cup of coffee or taking a break or wearing comfortable scrubs … those little things can make your day.”
Bringing More Awareness to That Life-Saving Match
For Beeghly, the brand has a bigger purpose than offering medical apparel. It’s a platform to create awareness about bone marrow donors. Taking the opportunity to give back, Perilla donates a portion of its profits to bone marrow match and donor programs A3M and Be The Match and City of Hope.
In addition to supporting these organizations, Perilla creates a call to action providing a link to sign up on the national donor registry through the brand’s website.
“We need more people to become donors,” Beeghly said. “We have to find these matches.”
Perilla is the family-run partnership of Jenny Beeghly and James Lim, M.D., that creates a line of fashionable yet functional hospital wear for medical professionals. With the desire to name their brand after their Korean heritage, they chose the Perilla sesame leaf, an herb used in cooking which reminds them of family. Using high-end fabrics and styles that flatter both men and women, Perilla offers scrubs in athleisure and traditional styles in addition to undergarments needed for cool-climate environments.
