Stephen Fry has employed disgraced fashion designer John Galliano to design the costumes for his theatrical production of Oscar Wilde’s comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest.

The move comes two years after Mr Galliano faced criminal charges for a drunken antisemitic rant.

Mr Galliano, who lost his job at Christian Dior in wake of the antisemitic attack, has lately resurfaced on the British fashion scene.

Marcelle d’Argy Smith, the former editor at Cosmopolitan UK, challenged Alexandra Shulman’s decision to invite Mr Galliano to guest fashion edit the December 2013 edition of Vogue UK.

She told the JC: “He said dreadful things and people say what they really think when they’re drunk.”

Mr Galliano has started designing the costumes for Mr Fry’s production, in which the actor, who is Jewish, will direct the show and play the character of Lady Bracknell. It will open next year.

Mr Galliano was filmed in September 2011 telling two Jewish women in a Paris cafe that he loved Hitler. He was dismissed from his post at Christian Dior and convicted of making “public insults”.

He has repeatedly apologised for his remarks.