Mariska Hargitay wears bow in honor of mom Jayne Mansfield and shares never-before-seen pic of her

It's been decades since Mariska Hargitay lost her mother, actor Jayne Mansfield, but she's still one of her biggest style inspirations.

While appearing on TODAY Jan. 18, Hargitay sported a chic black bow in her hair and matched Savannah Guthrie, who was also rocking the trendy hair accessory.

"Wait a minute. Can we just talk about your sweet bow?" the "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star said to Savannah .

"Can we talk about your sweet bow?" Savannah replied.

The two then turned around to give the cameras a better look at their on point accessories.

Savannah pointed out that TODAY was about to do a segment about hair bows and said Hargitay was their inspiration.

"Well can I tell you who my (inspiration) is?" the actor replied. "So I just found this photo of my mother when she was 8 years old and I brought it today."

The camera then panned to a black-and-white portrait of Mansfield smiling while she wore two bows in her hair.

"Look at her bows!" Savannah marveled.

"Look at her bows! And it just undid me, this photo of this little precious girl. And I was like, 'You are my inspiration,'" Hargitay said.

"It's beautiful, everything about it," Savannah said.

The actor then took a moment to give Savannah a bit of credit for her on trend bow moment.

"But you're also my inspiration cuz I saw your bows (on air previously). I've been watching you, Savannah," she said.

Savannah then suggested that Hoda Kotb should try a bow but she said, "I just don't think I can handle a bow."

Hargitay stepped in with a bit of style wisdom at this point.

"Here's the deal. You don't put yourself in a box. You wear a bow and you rock it," she said.

Savannah agreed wholeheartedly.

This isn't the first time that Hargitay has taken style cues from her late mother, who died in a car accident in 1967. Hargitay was only 3 years old at the time.

In 2021, the actor donned a beautiful pink gown to Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards in honor of her mother.

“The pink does have great significance because I’m bringing my mother with me tonight, and she’s here. She was one of the most glamorous women in the world, and I just hope that I can do her justice,” she said at the time.

The same year, she spoke to Glamour about the impact the loss of her mother had on her while she was growing up.

“I think I learned about crisis very young, and I learned very young that s--- happens and there’s no guarantees, and we keep going. And then we transform it,” she said. “That’s been kind of my superpower, and the gift of having trauma early in life. I’ve spent the last 50 — how old am I? — 57, so 54 years sort of trying to figure out what happened and why, and what am I supposed to do with it?”

In 2022, Hargitay told fashion designer Christian Siriano in a clip he shared on Instagram that she learned how to perfect a supermodel walk from her mom.

"Your walk is really good," Siriano said in the video.

"Well, don't forget, J.M. was my momma," Hargitay responded.

The following year, Hargitay paid tribute to Mansfield on what would have been her 90th birthday.

“Happy birthday Mama. We live to love you more each day,” Hargitay wrote on Instagram.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com