For several decades the abaya was enforced in public in Saudi Arabia by the religious police, and a woman in the street without one could expect to be stopped. The position was relaxed in recent years, and the public statement made by the crown prince in 2018 was that the requirement in Islamic law is for modest dress and that no particular garment is specified. In practice the change has been gradual and uneven, more visible in some cities and settings than others, and it is a change in enforcement rather than a change in the law of dress as understood by the religious establishment.
Alongside that runs a substantial fashion industry. Designers in the Gulf produce abayas in colours other than black, with embroidery, with cut and drape treated as design problems, and priced accordingly. The obvious objection, that a garment intended not to draw attention is being made to draw it, is raised regularly within the same societies, and there is no settled answer to it.
A separate set of arguments takes place where the garment is a minority one. France prohibited the wearing of abayas in state schools in 2023 under its rules on religious symbols in public education, which is a question of French constitutional practice rather than of Islamic law, and it is worth keeping the two kinds of dispute apart when reading about either.