Emperor Franz Joseph and Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, the successor of Ludwig II; both often hunted wearing lederhosen. Around 1875, Elisabeth of Bavaria, the wife of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, promoted wearing a rustic dress called a 'Sisi', based on the peasant dirndl. Evolution as a fashion style (1870s–1930s) The wearing of folk costume by royalty encouraged its adoption by other members of the upper and wealthier middle classes. From the 1870s onwards, the dirndl developed as a typical "country" dress amongst the wealthy patrons of the summer resort towns in Austria and Bavaria. An important influence was German Romantic literature, which contrasted the allegedly natural, unspoilt and unpolluted people of the countryside with the artificiality and depravity of urban society. The adoption of the dirndl as a fashion resulted in a synthesis of tradition and high fashion: the dirndls worn by upper class women took the basic design of the traditional dirndl but also used more fashionable materials such as silk, lace and expensive thread. The garment was made more closely fitted to emphasize the female body shape. The adoption of the dirndl by upper and middle classes raised the status of the traditional clothing; this in turn encouraged country people to value and continue wearing the traditional folk costumes. Key in the evolution of the dirndl to a commercial fashion were the Jewish brothers Julius (1874–1965) and Moritz Wallach (1879–1963),, originally from Bielefeld in north-western Germany. After they moved to Munich with their family in 1890, they became interested in and began promoting Alpine tracht. They employed seamstresses, who industriously produced the first elegant dirndls from colourful printed fabrics, predominantly silk. The dresses were exhibited by models from the firm in the Alpine resorts. A major breakthrough for the Wallach brothers came in 1910, when they organized and paid for the traditional costume parade for the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Oktoberfest. The Wallach brothers also became suppliers to the European aristocracy with their unique hand-sewn creations; they designed a dirndl for Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt, which created a sensation at a ball in Paris. In the hard economic times following the First World War, the dirndl became a big-seller; as a simple summer dress, it was an affordable alternative to the often expensive and elaborately worked historic women's costumes. Between 1920 and 1926, the Wallach brothers operated the ("Munich house of folk art"). In 1926, Moritz