One of KFC founder Colonel Sanders’ iconic white suits is set to cross the block at Julien’s Auctions.

Harland Sanders began selling his trademark fried chicken at a gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky during the 1930s.

Colonel Sanders founded a fried chicken empire 

His business really took off after a shootout with a rival chicken shop owner. A Shell Oil official was killed in the fracas and Sanders’ competitor was convicted of murder. 

The popularity of his restaurant led to Sanders being made a Kentucky Colonel in 1935, a title unique to the state and unrelated to the military.

In 1952, he opened his first franchise. The rest is history.

Around this time, Sanders started wearing a white suit with a string tie and insisted on being called “the Colonel”.

When he died in 1980, he was buried in his famous getup.

This suit is valued at $10,000-20,000 ahead of the November 17 Icons and Idols sale in LA.

It was made by Merton Chester of Toronto a few months before Sanders’ death (the Colonel sold up the American arm of his business in the mid-1960s but retained control of the Canadian side).   

In 2013, Masao Watanbe (president of KFC Japan) paid $21,510 for another of Sanders’ suits at Heritage Auctions.

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