A new and facile approach of surface dyeing was developed for cotton and nylon fabrics coated with a novel porous silk fibrom (SF)/silica (SiO2) nanohybrid. Actually, dyeing of the fabrics occurred in the very thin nanohybrid layers exclusively, while the main body of the fabrics remained intact on the whole. With the assistance of the large surface areas of the porous nanohybrid, dye uptake of the coated cotton fabrics dyed with Acid Red GSF or Disperse Cation Red SD-GRL was enhanced substantially compared with that of the uncoated fabrics as a control. Moreover, dye uptake increased with the SF content in the hybrid, indicating that the SF moiety played a significant role for the surface dyeing process. Color fastness to water of both the dyestuffs was much higher for the coated cotton fabrics compared with that of the uncoated ones. Similar results were obtained for the nanohybrid coated nylon fabrics dyed with Disperse Cation Red SD-GRL as those of the coated cotton fabrics. However, no increase was observed for dye uptake of the coated nylon fabrics dyed with Acid Red GSF owing to saturation of the dyestuff attached on the controlled uncoated nylon fabrics, which concealed the contribution of the nanohybrid layer. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.