You won't see a Verified Purchase flag on this review because I bought this item in the Robe Shop in Diagon Alley (Universal Studios, Orldano version).

My wife and I have annual passes to Universal Studios, in my case solely so I can hang out in Diagon Alley (and Hogsmeade) and cosplay Harry Potterish. During our visit in January 2018 I decided to buy my wife the McGonagle hat despite her already owning several hats she rotates in and out of her HP drag, all of which fit the bill, one of which she was wearing; a steampunky black hat with red rose trimming I bought on a previous visit, from the gift shop at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium just outside the park entrances.

She took some persuading, especially as the display models have no feathers and the store was dark and didn't show them off to best advantage, but I was quite forceful and she was in the mood to be treated to a silly present and so a very helpful young fellow produced a bagged McGonagall hat and fitted the double feather for her.

The hat is made of a sort of felt, trimmed with some sort of textile. It may be "dressed" to suit the wearer as far as disreputable crumpling of the point is concerned, and the brim is wired so it can be adjusted from the crazy see-saw line of the picture to even more crazy or boringly flat, as the wearer prefers.

Upon fiddling with the hat to get it adjusted to her liking (all the time receiving complements from other shoppers and triggering inquiries to the staff as to where they might get one for themselves) we stepped out into Diagon Alley.

She immediately began to garner positive comments from onlookers and during the day was begged to join other cosplayers and visitors for photographs (which she did; it's part of the fun).

My hat of choice is this&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Elope-Shiny-Black-Top-Hat/dp/B003L8KIL4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Elope Shiny Black Top Hat</a>&nbsp;so we make a good couple as we stroll about the place and often get mistaken for "cast members" - which we are careful not to impersonate of course.

My point being that for all the negative comments here, I managed to get a very striking costume hat that was worth every penny I paid for it, made my wife the center of attention and in the absence of a copy of the films, looked like McGonagall's hat.

Maybe the difference in our experience is that our sales assistant knew how to take the feather from its protective wrapping and "fluff" it properly. Maybe it was that I already knew from my own Elope hat that some small preparation would pay dividends. Maybe it was in the way I carefully helped my wife to re-shape the hat to her preferences before rolling it out in public. Maybe it was that the hats others bought got unreasonably battered in the mail. I don't know.

All I do know is that the hat as made by Elope can be an extremely worthwhile buy even though it comes packed flat.