Aztec Clothing for Kids Illustration

Aztec Clothing

Clothes, like nearly everything else in the Aztec world, showed who you were. The rich were easy to spot by their clothing and jewelry, as were priests, merchants, military men, lower class workers, and slaves.

Upper class Aztecs wore beautiful clothes made of cotton. Clothing was brightly dyed and decorated with embroidery and feathers.

Lower class Aztecs wore simple clothes, often made from the fibers of maguey leaves, spun into thread and woven. The woven pieces were sewn or tied together. This material was very soft. But it was not cotton. The lower class rarely if ever worn cotton. With the exception of some merchants, clothing was not embroidered. And no lower class person could wear feathers.

Merchants could wear a little fringe at each end of a loincloth, and perhaps a small amount of embroidery, to designate their superior status to the normal peasant.

The military had uniquely colored and designed clothing that showed to which group of warriers they belonged. Military heroes wore extra embroidery and gemstones on their uniforms so that everyone knew they were heroes.

Male slaves wore a simple loin cloth. Some tied at the shoulder. Some tied at the waist.

Women wore long skirts tied at the waist, and a sleeveless or short sleeve blouse. As women moved up the social scale, their clothing became more decorated and dyed to show their status.

Children wore similar clothes as their parents wore.

Priests had a special garment they always wore, along with whatever else they might be wearing. This special garment was a sleeveless waistcoat that stopped above their knees. Priests carried an incense burner, an incense bag on their back (carried like a backpack, and about the size of a child's backpack) and a container that held tobacco.

Rulers wore the most beautifully decorated clothes of all. Rulers also wore a long, heavily embroidered cotton cloak tied at the front rather than on the right shoulder. (Upper class men had to tie their capes and cloaks on the right shoulder.) Cloaks were a sign of status. The ruler had the most beautiful cloak of all (or heads would roll!)

Aztec Jewelry

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