Doctors' orders: whimsical clothier outfits physicians, chefs.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: Attitude at Altitude

SANDI RICHTER HAS SPOTTED her Crazy Scrubs medical-clothing line on TV's "ER" and "Entertainment Tonight," and four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Paul A. Dreschnack wears them on his humanitarian journeys to India where he performs surgery to help children lead normal lives. Richter's whimsical scrubs make the kids smile.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Richter, a former pharmaceutical-company rep, founded Crazy Scrubs 10 years ago when she whipped up a few colorful outfits for local pediatric surgeons on the kitchen table of her Littleton home.

Today Richter operates out of an Englewood warehouse. She has a retail store on South Downing Street in Denver, a catalog business, and has sent hundreds of thousands of orders for her colorful clothing around the world.

She has expanded her product line to include Chef Monster clothing for professional chefs, and she landed in Oprah Winfrey's audience and private dining room when Art Smith, Winfrey's personal chef, ordered her clothing and invited her to be part of his cooking segment.

"It was a thrill--I couldn't believe it--there I was in Oprah Winfrey's private dining room," said Richter.

Richter's idea to start her own business was born out of her own experience a decade ago when she was rushed to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver for an emergency appendectomy.

"I thought, 'This is really scary for an adult. What must it be like for children?'" recalls Richter, who went to work creating whimsical surgical caps. "I personally knocked on doors and tried to convince people to buy them. At first it was too way-out but eventually it caught on."

Today her line includes shirts, pants, jackets, socks and other accessories--even a child's surgical outfit called "I.M. Kid M.D.," which was featured on NBC "News for Kids" in 1995.

For the first two years, she operated out...