Characterization of Asymptotically Smooth Curves

We construct an explicit example of an asymptotically conformal chord-arc curve that fails to be asymptotically smooth. This implies that a function belonging to both the little Bloch space and BMOA does not necessarily lie in VMOA, and that a strongly quasisymmetric homeomorphism which is symmetric is not necessarily strongly symmetric. We also provide a complete characterization of asymptotically smooth curves in terms of asymptotic conformality and uniform approximability.