For me, personally, casual is in-between the loungewear of jogging pants, sweatshirts and yoga pants I wear at home to relax in - which I feel sloppy, yet comfortable in - and the smart casual look as defined by Angie here:
http://youlookfab.com/2006/09/.....or-ladies/. Angie's post is what I was using to define my idea of a casual capsule vs. a smart casual capsule.
There is a place in my life for something in-between and that's why I referred to it as casual. It is defined by the items I outlined in the original post - casual pants, flats, casual tops like graphic t's and casual toppers - but it is not "gear." To me, gear is what you wear when you want to go rock-climbing or hiking. I also find myself in an urban, youthful environment outside of work and home. Upon further reflection since I posted the thread, I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I was trying to achieve a casual look with just two pairs of jeans and 2 or 3 casual tops. Virtually impossible and constant frustration, given my lifestyle.
I also find it very difficult to be casual because of the shape of my figure. I'm very curvy and a lot of casual styles don't look good on me which is why I have defaulted to "smart casual" for so long. But flared jeans, a nice top and heeled boots get old and I needed something in-between. I'm determined to find casual looks that work for me and my figure.
Finally, I wanted to clarify some mis-interpretation that played out in the comments on my thread. Several people interpreted my pictures of the outfits as "dressier" than their interpretation of what casual dressing is - and I couldn't agree more. However, I came home with over 12 items of clothing and I wanted to minimize the number of pictures in one thread. So I paired items together to
show them, but not necessarily in the way that I would wear them casually. I did mention that that they were somewhat unstyled, but it was a long post with a lot of information, so perhaps people had missed that.
I wasn't really anticipating so much discussion on this topic?! I just wanted some pants and some tops - honestly!