Although Xipe is so frequently portrayed as possessing the outward characteristics of a red Tezcatlipocâ, few of the Mexican deities possess insignia so individual, or so rich in manifold elements. The Xipe dress was a favourite one with Mexican kings and military chieftains, and, in the Codex Vaticanus A, King Motecuhzoma II is represented as wearing the costume on the occasion of his victory over Toluca. Tezozomoc also states that Axayacatl wore this dress,[44] and on the eve of a fierce engagement Tlacauepan, brother of Motecuhzoma, donned it at the latter’s special request. The elements of Xipe’s costume are as follows[45]:
(1) The painted crown of feathers of the roseate spoonbill, with bifurcated ends.
(2) The gilded timbrel. [[208]]
(3) The jacket of spoonbill feathers.
(4) The petticoat or apron of zapote leaves, overlapping each other like tiles.
(5) The jaguar or ocelot-skin scabbard.
(6) The round shield covered with red spoonbill feathers, showing concentric circles of darker tints, sometimes noticeably bisected, one-half of which is again subdivided obliquely into a smaller upper portion containing a chalchihuitl on a blue field, and a larger lower portion, covered with jaguar or ocelot-skin.
Xipe’s dress has three forms:
(1) That of the red god, of the colour of the roseate spoonbill.
(2) That of the blue god, of the colour of the blue cotinga.