Featherwork garments showed an aesthetic sense of color and feathers were used in mantles, shirts, fans, and parasols to keep personages carried in litters out of the sun. The brilliant tones of the feathers used indicate a jungle origin for which we conclude there must have been barter the length and breadth of the country between the jungle, the mountains and the coast.

The chronicler Santa Cruz Pachacuti tells that for grand events such as the wedding of Huayna Capac with his sister on the day he received the tassel or mascaipacha insignia of power, they covered the thatched roofs of the palaces and temples of Cuzco with the showiest mantles made of multicolored feathers. The spectacle must have been magnificent and surprising since the colors of the roofs counteracted the sobriety of the stones and the gold borders of the palatial walls.