Hoda Kotb on NBC’s “Today” at Rockefeller Plaza. Debra L Rothenberg/WireImage
When Hoda Kotb capped off a week Today dubbed “Hoda-bration!” honoring the longtime host’s last day on Friday, January 10, she dressed the part in a familiar Veronica Beard white blazer suit that, sartorially speaking, felt like a full-circle moment that honored her legendary career.
While Kotb, 60, has been part of the fabric at NBC News for nearly 30 years (she announced she would be departing in September 2024), it’s hard to believe that she faced nearly just as many rejections. She was turned down 27 times for a television job before someone finally said “yes,” and she said the big break was all because of a jacket.
On her first day, an anchor got sick so she filled in on the evening newscast. “The litmus test for who anchors the news in Greenville, Mississippi WXVT News Center 15, is who shows up to work with a blazer,” Kotb said in an interview with PR for Anyone.
“I remember [Stan Sandroni, the late news director,] busted in, and he goes, ‘Okay, who has a blazer?’ I go, ‘What?’ ‘A jacket. Who has a jacket?’ I go, ‘A jacket? I have a jacket. It’s hanging on the hanger.’ ‘Oh good, you need to anchor the news, because Ann [Martin] is sick,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘OK!’”
She frequently looks back on that moment and says it only takes one person (and one blazer) to change your life, which made her smart suiting for her farewell feel all the more fitting. A proud wardrobe repeater, Kotb has always kept her work uniform simple and streamlined.
“I’ve worn the same dress I don’t know how many times. I re-wear everything,” Kotb said in a 2020 interview with Glamour. “A lady tweeted to me, ‘I’ve seen that dress 57 times,’ and she was right!”
Kotb continued: “Our staff even put up pictures of the number of times I wore the dress. I thought it was funny … There are people who are much cooler than me, who have a much cooler fashion sense than I’ll ever have. It’s not my thing.”
Her pragmatic sensibility was echoed by Savannah Guthrie in a video shared via YouTube on Friday, January 10. “She’s about what matters,” Guthrie, 53, said. Then, she jokingly held up Kotb’s “red carpet purse” which was a Ziplock bag with lip gloss, a compact, cash and a banana for a snack. Guthrie ended on a more serious note: “I love you deeply whether you’re sitting next to me or not whether we get up at 4 o’clock in the morning together or not, I will always be by your side.”
Indeed, Kotb took a similarly sentimental approach with her accessories: stacks of bracelets, rings and necklaces for her final episode that she said she holds near and dear to her heart.
She pointed out, “This top bracelet that says, ‘With You,’” a gift she received from Guthrie, before showing off a ring that Guthrie gave her which said, “Love.”
For her part, Guthrie chose a black dress for the farewell show, because she was in “mourning” on her beloved colleague’s last day. Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve — or blazer.
