Rokaiya Ahmed
Purna

Rokaiya Ahmed Purna is a Bangladeshi fashion designer, textile researcher and educator whose practice connects heritage materials with contemporary global design. As founder and creative director of RAP and founder of Design in Bangladesh, she works across couture, ready-to-wear, product development, education and creative-economy advocacy.

Her work is grounded in a belief that Bangladesh should be recognised not only for manufacturing excellence, but also for design authorship. Through Jamdani, muslin, jute, folk memory and research into Bangladesh's six seasons, she develops fashion narratives that are culturally specific and internationally legible.

Rokaiya received the Entrepreneurial Prize at the 2018 iD International Emerging Designer Awards in Dunedin, New Zealand, and presented Jute Matryosh through the Global Talent programme at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia in 2019. Her Urban Tribal practice has been documented in the Fashion FWD critical-making context, where handloom textiles, women's empowerment and responsible production were central themes.

In collaboration with German footwear brand EKN, she designed Kamthala — a vegan sneaker inspired by Bangladesh's national fruit and framed through the proposition "Designed in Bangladesh, Made in Europe." The project became a visible statement about creative equity and the direction of value within global fashion supply chains.

She represented Bangladesh at UNESCO's 13th Youth Forum in 2023 and later spoke at TEDxRUET about moving the national fashion narrative from "Made in Bangladesh" toward "Designed in Bangladesh." Her wider work includes design education, research workshops, industry consultancy and platforms that connect designers, artisans, manufacturers and global institutions.

Credential: International fashion designer, textile researcher, design educator, UNESCO Youth Forum delegate and founder of RAP and Design in Bangladesh.