Finland’s Biggest Dress Party – A Study of the Role of Women’s Appearances at the Independence Day Reception, aims to understand the role of dresses at Finland’s Independence Day Reception by focusing on how the reception has earned a title “Finland’s biggest dress party”, and meanings behind the dresses. The aims are studied combining fashion and media studies in three analytical chapters focusing on the media’s development and influence, how the dresses work as a communication tool and what kind of messages are sent through dresses, and Finnishness and national identity in the dresses. The chapters are linked to each other by the importance of the communication between the dresses, the media and the audience during the hype around the Independence Day Reception. The study is based on interviews, which were conducted with seven reception guests and three dress designers, archival studies, visual culture studies and (fashion) media discourse. The study draws on theories by Roland Barthes, Malcolm Barnard and Erving Goffman.