A style number is the unique identifier automatically assigned to a style when it is created, used to track it from first sample through to finished production. It gives every design team, supplier and system a single, consistent reference for the same product.
In a PLM platform, style numbers are rarely typed in by hand. A generator builds each one from configurable logic, combining elements such as brand, season, group, style category or a custom field, adding consecutive digits, and separating the parts with a hyphen or other character. Depending on how a brand sets it up, every style number either follows the generator's logic exactly, or starts there and can still be edited by hand afterwards. The style number itself identifies the style, not a specific variant: it is often combined with colour and size to build the full SKU, so a typical SKU is style number + colour + size.
Without a shared numbering logic, teams end up tracking used numbers in a spreadsheet, and that breaks down quickly once more than one person is creating styles at the same time, with duplicates and gaps creeping in. A consistent, automatically generated style number removes that manual bookkeeping, keeps every style traceable across design, sourcing and production, and cuts down the data errors that come from typos or reused numbers.
Delogue's Style Number generator sits in Admin, where a brand defines its own logic once and every new style follows it automatically. Turning on the unique style number setting also stops a duplicate being created, even when a style is copied - one of the ways a PLM system like Delogue keeps product data consistent from day one.