Phil Cohen was nominated for a makeover by his fellow instructors at Pilates Santa Fe.

"We have a male instructor at our Pilates studio who is divorcing after 21 years," began a letter signed by Phil's three female co-workers. "He's Obama's age and we pretend he's 39, like Jack Benny. He recently slimmed down quite a bit ... he is in a rut, fashion-wise and otherwise and we are all ashamed to be seen with him in public because we are all terribly vain and superficial."

Phil's co-workers went on to say that though Phil really is "quite a catch," one couldn't tell by looking at him, because of the big hair, "workout pants and gigantic shirts." Phil's friends sent a picture that showed a pleasant-looking man with an unruly mop of curls, wearing clothes that were indeed way to big for him.

When I met Phil, he was wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt tucked into soccer-dad jeans. Still, my first thought was that he is actually quite attractive, with an appealing vulnerability about him.

Phil is originally from Chicago but has been in Santa Fe since 1985, and like most men who move to Santa Fe from somewhere else, he's got a bit of that sensitive-New-Age-guy thing going on, a fact I Iearned when we talked about his recent 25- to 30-pound weight loss.

"It's gonna sound really strange and Santa Fe woo-woo," he said earnestly, "but it occurred to me I was hanging on to the weight as a protective device, a sort of a cushion of sorts."

Despite carrying some extra weight, Phil said, he's always been athletic and active. He recently won several statewide racquetball championships. But caring about his appearance has never been high on his list of priorities.

He described his style as "casual" even in high school and college. A former art dealer who worked in New York City, Phil said he "did jackets and ties" for a while, then had a period of wearing "Ropers" but eventually gave them up and adopted a safe but uninspired uniform of jeans and a collared shirt.

"That has been my MO for awhile," Phil said, "much to (his former wife's) dismay. There were occasions where she would have liked me to dress up more, and I have some slacks and for special events I would put on a blazer and a tie, but basically I shunned the idea of getting dressed up for anybody for a long time. I got lazy. I always thought I had a pretty decent casual sense. I thought I looked OK. I never knew what the feedback was, I never paid attention to that. I was one of those kind of 'the radar is off' kind of people."

Phil said the few times his ex-wife asked him to dress up he did, "but my attitude was like, 'Who am I trying to impress?' So that is a stubbornness I think could go away now."

Phil said he'd liked to cultivate a look of "casual elegance."

"I want people to look at me and say, 'Hey, there is a guy who is accessible, he is fun, he is confident, he cares enough to look good but doesn't need to impress,' " he said.

Whatever his new look ends up being, Phil said, he doesn't want anything too contrived. "I don't wear gel in my hair. I don't do that kind of stuff. I'm more of the au naturel kind of dude. I don't spend time blow-drying and I don't intend to."

Tune in next week: Phil, stylist Lynne and I put in a 12-hour day trying to find a look that tells the world Phil is trying, but not too hard.