WHATS ON ? SO SO SAD...MY FASHION POLICE MWALIMU WANGU UMETUACHA NA KUNICHIA MACHOZI YASIYO KAUKA HADI UTAKAPO RUDI TENA'' JOAN RIVERS MY MAMA ''I LOVE YOU AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU AND DO JUST LIKE YOU '' FASHION POLICE KIBOKO YA WACHAFUAJI NA WASOPENDA KUCHEKA'' R.I.P. MY HERO!!

Live from the red carpet! Joan Rivers, who died on Thursday in New York City, pioneered the concept of red carpet fashion critique, paving the way for a highly lucrative sartorial merry-go-round''

This, in turn, sparked the development of a sartorial merry-go-round that is today of huge financial value to fashion brands and the celebrities who wear their designs.

Before Rivers started critiquing the red carpet in the mid-Nineties, little attention was given to what celebrities wore to awards ceremonies.

But when the already successful comedienne and daughter Melissa were invited to co-host the E! Entertainment Television pre-awards coverage for the Golden Globe Awards in 1994, everything changed.The resulting show was such a success, and the pair continued to host the show annually as 'Live From The Red Carpet' until 2003, cementing Rivers' position as a red carpet critic to both love and fear. 

While her success inspired a whole coterie of TV fashion critics, Rivers always remained the grande dame - largely thanks to the fact that she was never afraid of what the A-list might think if she were to cast a negative opinion.

And those opinions were so popular with viewers, they sparked the genesis of the red carpet as a TV event. Indeed, E!'s hugely popular Fashion Police, which launched in 2010 and was fronted by Rivers herself, is a direct result of that effect. 

Double-act: Rivers pictured with her daughter Melissa on the red carpet at the Oscars in 2006''Now, the right dress can make or break a star's career, and in turn, if a small label is lucky enough to dress a major celebrity for a high-profile occasion, their business can skyrocket. 

These days they have a stylist and they have a PR person walking with them. God forbid you say something bad about it, they’ll never let you talk to them again

Joan Rivers, 2010 

 As a result, celebrities can be paid six-figure sums to wear a custom-made gown to the Oscars, and there is an entire industry built around making such partnerships happen.

Rivers reflected on the changes to the red carpet in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2010.

'I think what’s happened in general is [the celebrities have] all got stylists. When Melissa and I started, nobody else was doing this and nobody had stylists. They all picked their own dresses. It was wonderful because you got to see the good, you got to see the bad. You got to see what a real person thought they look good in. 

'These days they have a stylist and they have a PR person walking with them. God forbid you say something bad about it, they’ll never let you talk to them again.'

In fact, it was one of the reasons she and Melissa quit on-site, live reporting, inspiring some commentators to question whether Rivers had finally got herself banned from the red carpet.  

Saying what she thinks: Rivers pictured last year with her co-hosts on E!'s Fashion Police, from left, Kelly Osbourne, Giuliana Rancic and George Kotsiopoulos

HABARI NDIYO HIYOOOOOOOOO''JAMANI SASA WENGINE TUMEACHIWA URITHI NA MAMA YETU THE FASHION POLICE MWANZILISHI MY RIVERS MAMA''' LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND THANK YOU KWA KUNICHEKESHA NA KUNIFUNZA JINSI YA KUSEMA UKWELI NA UKWELI MTUPU'' SAY IT LIKE IT IS'' MBUTA NANGA!! MBINGUNI MALAIKA WANACHEKAJE SASA''' 

'If you had to tell everybody, "Don’t you look great!" then we’re not telling anybody anything.'

Fashion Police, which premiered in 2010, was just the antidote to a red carpet that had evolved beyond entertainment value into something too precious for the woman who created it. 

10 OF JOAN RIVERS' FUNNIEST FASHION AND BEAUTY QUOTES 

• 'The fashion magazines are suggesting that women wear clothes that are "age appropriate." For me that would be a shroud.'
• My husband wanted to be cremated. I told him I'd scatter his ashes at Neiman Marcus - that way, I'd visit him every day.
• 'Grandchildren can be so f***ing annoying. How many times can you go, "And the cow goes moo and the pig goes oink?" It's like talking to a supermodel.'
• On shapewear: 'My grandson is mad at me. He's mad at me because I squandered his college fund on Spanx. It's a lot, but there's a lot going on here.'
• 'You know you're getting old when you buy a sexy sheer nightgown and don't know anyone who can see through it.'
• 'I hate thin people; "Oh, does the tampon make me look fat?"'
• 'I was so flat I used to put Xs on my chest and write, "You are here." I wore Angora sweaters just so the guys would have something to pet.'
• 'I wish I had a twin, so I could know what I'd look like without plastic surgery.'
• 'The only time a woman has a true orgasm is when she is shopping.'
• 'I don't exercise. If God had wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.'

But Rivers was initially dismissive of the notion of hosting a fashion show. Speaking in an interview with Fresh Air in 2010, she said it was a risk that would pay off.

'I didn't want to do Fashion Police because I thought, "This is stupid, this is beneath me, who wants to talk about fashion?"' she admitted.

Later that year she would wax lyrical about the freedom to say what she thought. 

'I love [Fashion Police] because I don’t have to stand on the red carpet and pretend I like something - it goes against everything I believe in - and smile and say, "Don’t you look nice?" and the next day, say she looked terrible. So I’d rather not have to do the first part,' she told EW.

'It's so great. The next day you can really say, "The dress is so low-cut, she could’ve sold advertising on her cleavage." But if you say that to someone on the red carpet, that’s it. You don’t get them back, and you don’t get any other clients of the PR person back.' 

In later life, Rivers became as well known for her penchant for plastic surgery as she was for her wit.

Of course she was not so vain that she could not critique herself. Some of Rivers' funniest one-liners were aimed at herself. Speaking once of her penchant for cosmetic enhancement, she said: 'I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.'

But she saw the benefit in aging too. That freedom of speech she so valued came from a fearlessness borne from life experience.

'The only thing that's saving me is my age, she said. 'Because I don't care. I've been up, I've been down. I've been fired, I've been hired. I've been broke. What are you gonna to do me? Not like me? I don't give a damn.'

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