Ichcahuipilli (quilted cotton armour jacket)

The ichcahuipilli was perfectly suited to Mesoamerican climes - something that the Spanish invaders quickly learned, even before arriving in Mexico: according to Bernal Díaz del Castillo ‘As in the country around Havana [Cuba] there is much cotton, we made well-padded armour for ourselves, which is most necessary when fighting Indians, on account of the great use they make of darts, arrows and lances, and stones which fall on one like hail’ (Rieff Anawalt 1981: 49). European metal armour was a recipe for being roasted alive!
What’s more, the ichcahuipilli ‘was not designed to stop the force of a projectile on impact but rather absorb it’ (Pohl 2001: 20). This was confirmed by Spaniards in their comments on Aztec warrior paraphernalia: the Spanish gloss added to an illustration of an unusually decorated ichcahuipilli in the Codex Vaticanus A (see picture 1) notes that the invaders found Aztec armour superior since ‘it resists the arrows which could penetrate the strongest coat of mail and even some cuirass [rigid, usually metal, armour] [but] could not penetrate these escauiples [Spanish attempt to transcribe ichcahuipilli]’ (Rieff Anawalt, op cit).

Pic 1: An Aztec warrior wearing a closed ‘ichcahuipilli’; Codex Vaticanus A, fol. 57v

The closed-sewn variety of ichcahuipilli was ‘constructed of two or more widths of material joined lengthwise with continuous seams’, and came in two styles: the first was ‘an undecorated, sleeveless garment that was pulled on over the head, hugged the body, and reached to the top of the thigh’, the second ‘a pull-on, sleeveless, flared costume that reached to mid-thigh and was decorated’ (1981: 49) - see picture 1 for a good example.
Rieff Anawalt observes that ‘a wide range of Aztecs wore the cotton armour, as shown by the examples illustrated...’ [in her chart - see picture 3, lower section]. What’s also clear is that padded cotton armour jackets were worn in a range of lengths, from the waist down almost to the calf. According to Pohl (op cit), ‘most were left natural, but some were dyed in bright colours’ - something specifically commented on by Díaz de Castillo: ‘There was also much quilted cotton armour, richly ornamented on the outside with many coloured feathers, used as devices and distinguishing marks’ (Rieff Anawalt, op cit).

Pic 3: Patricia Rieff Anawalt’s compilation of open- and closed-sewn ‘ichcahuipilli’ jackets, as depicted in codices