Seems like there is old research demonstrating that at least part of our attraction to our mates is based on smell

In his original study Dr Wedekind recruited female volunteers to sniff men's three-day-old T-shirts and rate them for attractiveness.

The attraction is based in "a part of the immune system known as the major histocompatability complex (MHC)."  Seems we are attracted to people whose DNA, and smell, is DIFFERENT from our own, and that women with similar MHC (analyzed from their DNA) prefer similar scents.

Women preferred T-shirts from men whose MHC was most different from their own. What was more, women with similar MHCs favoured the use of similar commercial perfumes. This suggests that the role of such perfumes may be to flag up the underlying body scent rather than mask it, as a more traditional view of the aesthetics of body odour might suggest.

The article suggests that this makes sense evolutionarily - we want to keep the gene pool diverse and mixed for species strength.

Of course, being The Economist, the point of the article is how someone is making money from this insight

ScientificMatch.com, a Boston-based internet-dating site launched in December, was created to turn this insight into money.

Very interesting.  And makes me feel a little less weird that I love the smell of my husband's t-shirts and pillow case.  It's not my own craziness - it's that evolutionary draw!