Sex and the City costume designer Patricia Field has compared John Galliano’s allegedly antisemitic rants to the satirical film The Producers.

She told Women’s Wear Daily that Mr Galliano, who was fired as chief designer for Christian Dior yesterday in the wake of the scandal, was just “acting out of character” when he professed his love for Adolf Hitler.

Questioning the outcry over his arrest for allegedly shouting anti-Jewish slurs at a woman in a French bistro, Ms Field said: “But it’s OK when it’s Mel Brooks’ ‘The Producers’ singing Springtime for Hitler.”

Ms Field, known for producing outlandish outfits for television programmes and films including Ugly Betty and The Devil Wears Prada, added that as someone with a Jewish stepfather, she knew what she was talking about.

She said: “People in fashion, all they do is go and see John Galliano theatre every season. That’s what he gives them. This was the same, except it wasn’t in a theatre or in a movie.

“John lives in theatre. It’s theatre. It’s farce. But people in fashion don’t recognise the farce in it.”

While high-profile stars including Natalie Portman have distanced themselves from the British designer, Ms Field also defended Mr Galliano’s behaviour by emailing hundreds of friends a message with the subject “In praise of John Galliano”.

She wrote in the email: “Beauty, intelligence and energy would describe John as I know him. Where in this trilogy could one find hate?”