There may be a few fragments of actual Aztec textiles, but very few. Climate, soil and customs (for example burning of cloth in funerary rituals) have contributed to that. However there is a wealth of information available. I’ve already written about the Emperors’ cloak (17-Nov-2014). This post is a more general view.

Codex Mendoza Folio 58r (detail)

Codex Mendoza folio 60r (detail)

Codex Fejérváry-Mayer
page 38 (detail)
Xochiquetzal, fertility goddess reputed to have introduced spinning and weaving

Codex azcatitlan
Coronation of Tenochca Acamapichtli, receiving the crown, cloak and staff – attributes of power
My side notes on Siegler’s paper include ideas for creating feather effects (actual feathers could cause quarantine issues in postage), trying ikat technique (patterned pre-dyeing of warp and/or weft) to create the blue diamond pattern; heraldry; what achievements do we celebrate; and questions about how we determine value – materials, production time, use, fashion…
Indigo was the dye suggested for the Emperors’ cloak, but cochineal was another important dye for the Aztecs. This has an Australian connection. The first white settlers are believed to have attempted to establish a cochineal industry, introducing prickly pear. Other species were introduced in the 1840s. It became a huge pest, over-running millions of hectares of farming land, with the introduction of the cactoblastis moth in the 1930s achieving a huge reduction in what remains a significant pest.In its own environment the cactus was useful, providing a home for the cochineal insect and apparently, in this illustration, a support for a backstrap loom.
Some notes taken from LaVerne Dutton’s 1992 Masters Thesis Cochineal: A Bright Red Animal Dye:I have found a source for both cochineal and indigo, and am hoping to experiment with both – something of a step for me, as I have preferred to use the more controlled, repeatable colours of synthetic dyes in the past. I’m also attracted by the mention of bells – perhaps something sound-producing could be included in a work.
With cloth so important and so valuable, fine weaving was a way for a commoner woman to gain respect and perhaps become a noble. A rich or noble Aztec man could take many wives (a wife only one husband), and the wealth generated by wives’ weaving was an important part of the domestic economy.From Women and weaving in Aztec palaces and colonial Mexico by Susan Toby Evans:
References
Codex Azcatítlan (1501 – 1600) [online] Available from http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84582686.r=Codex+Azcat%C3%ADtlan.langEN (Accessed 19-Nov-2014)
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer [online] Available from http://www.famsi.org/research/graz/fejervary_mayer/index.html (Accessed 24-Nov-2014)
Codex Mendoza (1541 – 1542 ?) [online] Available from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Codex_Mendoza
Dutton, L. (1992) Cochineal: A Bright Red Animal Dye Masters Thesis, Baylor University, Waco, Texas [online] Available from http://www.cochineal.info/pdf/Ch-2-Pre-Columbian-Mexican-Peruvian-Textiles-Cochineal-Thesis.pdf (Accessed 6-Nov-2014)
Evans, S.T. (2008) “Women and weaving in Aztec palaces and colonial Mexico” In Walthall, A (ed.) Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History University of California Press. [online] Available from http://anth.la.psu.edu/documents/Evans_2008ConcubinesandCloth.pdf (Accessed 6-Nov-2014)
Los Códices matritenses (1558 – 1585) [online] Available from http://bdmx.mx/detalle/?id_cod=34#.VHFtHPmUdXM (Accessed 16-Nov-2014)
Matrícula de tributos (1522 – 1530) [online] Available from http://bdmx.mx/detalle/?id_cod=22#.VHFYkvmUdXM (Accessed 22-Nov-2014)
Siegler, J. (2008) “Textiles Recorded: Fashion Reconstructed Through Aztec Codices” Textiles as Cultural Expressions: Proceedings of the 11th Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, September 24–27, 2008, Honolulu, Hawaii [online] Available from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/242/ (Accessed 6-Nov-2014)
Strawn, S. (2002) “Hand spinning and cotton in the Aztec Empire, as revealed by the Codex Mendoza” Silk Roads, Other Roads: Proceedings of the 8th Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, September 26-28, 2002, Northampton, Massachusetts [online] Available from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/420/ (Accessed 13-Nov-2014)
T1-E1:P1-p1-s1 Research – Aztec textiles
Textiles 1 – Exploring Ideas
Part 1: Cultural fusions
Project 1: Interpreting cultural sources
Stage 1: Researching source material
Research – Aztec textiles
Very interesting, especially how women had, before the Spaniards came, close to equal footing in society.
Pretty much all the gods had both masculine and feminine aspects, and women in childbirth were regarded as warriors. Not entirely “different but equal”, but very different to “civilized” europe at the time.