Tom Ford: 'Rihanna's clothing choices are more important than reviews'

Top designer Tom Ford has risked incurring the wrath of the fashion elite by insisting Rihanna's clothing choices are more important than reviews.

The style king-turned-moviemaker claims many top fashionistas are more concerned about what the Umbrella hitmaker is wearing than what their peers and critics think of their new lines.

He tell Style.com, "Something new is happening... and this probably won't go down well, but customers don't care any more about reviews or hard-copy publications. They care what picture Rihanna just Instagrammed while she's naked in bed, what new shoes she has on, how she's talking about them. That's what they respond to."

Ironically, Rihanna closed her Instagram account last month (Apr14) after nude images she posted from a recent magazine photoshoot were taken down by site bosses for violating the company's decency rules.