FLORENCE, Alabama – Reid. Billy Reid.

The internationally famous Florence fashion designer Billy Reid has a big fan in James Bond star Daniel Craig, and one of Reid's menswear designs has a supporting role in the British actor's latest 007 thriller "Skyfall," which opens nationwide Friday.

Craig’s fashion-conscious Bond sports a Billy Reid brand pea coat in a few scenes in the movie, previews of which have been showing in theaters and airing on TV for the past few weeks.

After word spread among James Bond aficionados on the internet, the coat, which sells for $695, has become so popular that the Florence clothier can’t keep up with the demand.

“We have shipped this thing as far away as Hong Kong, Norway, Italy, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Japan, literally all over the world,” Graham Heard, director of e-commerce for the Billy Reid company, said Tuesday. “We had pre-orders for 258 of them, and we sold out. We are taking back-orders now.”

Made with 100-percent Italian wool, the navy-colored, double-breasted pea coat is accented with natural horn buttons and leather details under the collar and pockets. That style of coat, which falls just below the waist, was originally worn by European sailors as far back as the 1700s.

Craig, who had previously shopped at the Billy Reid store in Nashville, Heard said, purchased a pea coat for his personal use about two years ago at the Billy Reid store in New York, which is located, ironically enough, at 54 Bond St.

Craig, the sixth actor to play James Bond, liked the coat so much that he wanted to wear it in “Skyfall,” which is his third time to star in the iconic Ian Fleming franchise.

“Daniel Craig has almost total control of James Bond’s wardrobe now,” Heard said. “They’ve almost let him be in charge of stylizing himself in these movies.”

Last fall, Heard said, Billy Reid’s Florence headquarters received a request from the film production company Bond 23 asking for 19 of the pea coats to use in the movie.

“You wonder, ‘Why would you buy 19 of them?’” Heard said. “But they are all for him (Craig). They use it so much in the film, and they beat them up so much, that they needed extras.”

“Skyfall” opened in Europe nearly two weeks ago, and after it opens in the U.S. on Friday, Heard expects more demand for the Bond pea coat.

The company has about 120 coats on back-order, he added. Those orders will be filled as quickly as the company gets more fabric, but they won’t ship until January, he said.

The flagship store in Florence has one of the coats left, Heard said, but it’s not for sale. “I’m not letting go of it,” he said.

Craig is just one of several celebrities who are partial to the Billy Reid brand of menswear. Others include actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Zach Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, Justin Timberlake and members of the band Mumford & Sons.

Earlier this year, Reid was named Menswear Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and this summer, he introduced a line of T-shirts and caps celebrating Alabama Gulf Seafood.

Reid, who grew up in Louisiana, opened his original store in Florence in 2005 and moved to its current location in 2009. He also has shops in New York, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Atlanta, and Charleston.

In the "Skyfall" movie trailer below, the Billy Reid pea coat can be spotted at the 1:10 mark, and again briefly at the 2:04 and 2:22 marks.

Email Bob Carlton at bcarlton@bhamnews.com