Hoda Kotb pays stylish tribute to the jacket that made her so successful

If Hoda Kotb limited to a week today called “Hoda-bration!” honoring the last day of the old owner on Friday, Jan. 10, she donned the role in a familiar white Veronica Beard jacket that, sartorially speaking, felt like a full-circle moment that honored her storied career.

While Kotb, 60, has been with NBC News for nearly 30 years (she announced that she will leaving in September 2024), it’s hard to believe she faced the same number of rejections. She was turned down 27 times for TV jobs before someone finally said yes, and she said her big break was all because of the jacket.

On her first day, the anchor got sick, so she appeared on the evening newscast. “The litmus test for a news anchor at Greenville, Mississippi WXVT News Center 15 is who comes to work wearing a jacket,” Kotb said in an interview PR is for everyone.

“I remember (Stan Sandronithe late news director) burst in and he said, “Okay, who’s got the jacket?” I say, “What?” “A jacket. Who has a jacket?” I say, “A jacket? I have a jacket. Hanging on a hanger.” “Oh, well, you have to do the news because Anne (Martin) got sick,” she recalls. “I said, ‘OK!'”

She often looks back on that moment and says it only takes one person (and one jacket) to change your life, which made her stylish farewell suit all the more fitting. Kotb, who prides herself on replicating her wardrobe, has always kept her work uniform simple and streamlined.

“I don’t know how many times I wore the same dress. I put everything back on,” Kotb said in a 2020 interview Glamour. “One woman tweeted me, ‘I’ve seen this dress 57 times,’ and she was right!”

Kotb continued, “Our staff even posted pictures of how many times I wore the dress. I thought it was funny… There are people who are way cooler than me, who have way cooler fashion sense than I ever had. It’s none of my business.”

Her pragmatic sensibility found a response Savannah Guthrie in a video shared via YouTube on Friday, January 10th. “She’s about what matters,” Guthrie, 53, said. Then she jokingly held up Kotb’s “purse,” which was a zippered bag with lip gloss, a compact, cash, and a banana for a snack. Guthrie ended on a more serious note: “I love you so much, whether you’re sitting next to me or not, whether we get up at 4 in the morning or not, I’ll always be there for you.”

Indeed, Kotb took a similarly sentimental approach to her accessories, stacking bracelets, rings and necklaces for the final episode, which she says are near and dear to her heart.

She noted: “That top bracelet that says ‘With you’ is a gift she got from Guthrie before showing off a ring that Guthrie gave her that said ‘Love.’

In turn, Guthrie chose a black dress for the farewell show, as she was in “mourning” on the last day of her beloved colleague. Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve or your blazer.